Sonic the Hedgehog: Wrath of Oryx
by SteelfistJon
Summary: Sonic and his friends are given a choice by Dr. Eggman to sacrifice the lives of their friends and families to save themselves or sacrifice themselves to save everyone, but the guardians think otherwise and must ask Sonic, his friends, and Eggman to stop the approaching Darkness, and then settle in their new home, since theirs was destroyed by Oryx, the Taken King. (Hiatus)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** This is my first fanfic and it will contain some swearing, not too major, and I will describe some minor alien gore, no human, awoken, or mobian gore will be described, just subtle hints of it. Only extremely subtle hints of sexual activity, like it'll start at the clothing level and then I'll cut it to a different scene when I feel is a good time to cut, you'll see what I mean, it won't be bad, I promise. Lastly, most of the couples will be self explanatory throughout the story for the Sonic half of this fanfic, the Destiny side I'll need to think about it more and see if it works. I'll think about making a later chapter a flashback chapter and I hope you guys enjoy this story, sorry for this explanation for being so long. Also, all non-original characters belong to Sega, Archie, and Bungie.(Doing this copyright thing just in case.)

For Sonic and his gang, this story takes place after the Super Genesis wave, whenever or however it happens, and end up back to where they were before the second one hit and brought other world's together. When they got back they were able to thwart the rest of Eggman's plans, as usual, and was able to restore Sally's original mind, but could not revert her to normal for another few months.

In the Destiny universe, however, the King's Fall mission was a failure and Oryx had let the half dozen Guardians go so that they could wallow in defeat. Oryx was able to force his way into the Vault of Glass and access multiple time lines, bargaining the other species of darkness with leaders lost to the guardians. This destabilized the entire universe, making it collapse within a few days time. Both light and dark forces were able to evacuate most of their citizens from their home worlds and colonies. They all survived the collapse, but at the cost of their homes and people who were forced to be left behind.

Now the Taken, Hive, Fallen, Cabal, Vex, Exos, Awoken, and Humans must find a new home and hopefully see if Light or Dark will prevail in their war.

 **Chapter one: The beginning of the end?**

It was a peaceful day back at New Mobotropolis, Sonic and his temporary robotic friend, Sally, were enjoying a walk around the place for the fun of it. After Sally's conscious was restored, the Freedom Fighters told her that she wouldn't be back to her flesh and bone self for about another few months. But that didn't stop her from helping out both Team Freedom and Fighter, eventually being called the Freedom Fighters again, with problems like Dr. Eggman and politics, business as usual.

In the meantime, they had already spent a good 12 days back together as a team, half thwarting some of Eggman's later plans, and the other half just spending time together after Eggman disappeared after the sixth day, partly because he gave up, and partly because Sally threatened him to stay the hell away from her sight if Eggman knew what was good for him. So, after the incident with Eggman, they didn't have much to do but get used to Sal's new metal body for a few months. At the very least, she can move her mouth and eyebrows for expressions, which is helpful, instead of always having a murder face on.

Long story short, Antoine was recovering from his coma, waking up four days prior to this story, Bunnie legionized herself to help her friends, which means they had to cut off her left arm and both legs and replace them with robot limbs, ouch, Ixis Naugus and Geoffrey St. John went back in their own bodies, Naugus being able to turn himself back to his normal self, minus the extra voices in his head, the secret freedom fighters revealed themselves to the normal freedom fighters and told them to keep their team a secret, at least to the public and Naugus, Shard, a reprogrammed Metal Sonic, was repaired and brought back from oblivion, and Snively was back under Eggman's command, but was watched upon frequently.

"So, do you feel comfortable with the whole "robot with laser swords in her wrists" shtick yet?" Sonic asked, just trying to make conversation during their peaceful walk.

"A little bit, still it could be worse." Sally said in a mixed voice of her own and a robotic one.

"How so?" Sonic said.

"I could still be under Eggman's control, continuing his dirty work." Sally said with an "obviously" look on her face.

"Hm, we haven't really done a lot when it comes down to missions as the Freedom Fighters, have we?" Sonic asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well what do you expect after going through something like that... incident? I'm sure I would try to hide for a few days after experiencing something like that." Sally said, before starting to look down after remembering what she had done.

"Don't be so down, you didn't realize until after that little threat," evidently, Sally had threatened Robotnik to keep cutting him until she reached his heart, and didn't realize until after that "little" threat, "it was just some pent up rage from years of fighting him. Also I think he soiled himself in the process of being scared." He said, which made Sally laugh a little from that image.

While they were at it, they were gonna go to Antoine's room at the hospital to check up on him. When Antoine woke up from his coma, he had some catching up to do, what with Bunnie legionizing herself and Sally freed from Eggman's control. He surprisingly got over it in about 12 hours after realizing what has happened for the past few weeks. Of course he was kept in his hospital bed for the past 4 days to make sure there wasn't any permanent damage. Luckily, he seemed to be very healthy, as if he wasn't in coma, and everything was like he remembered beside Bunnie being legionized and Sally being a robian chipmunk.

As the couple (and yes they will be together) went into the entrance of the Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital, some people did stare a little bit longer at Sally, since she was still a robian, which she just brushed off as normal for the time being. 'Just a few more months and they won't stare at me like a killing machine. Kinda thought they would-', her train of thought was cut off as she was about to run into Sonic. "Hey, are we able to see Antoine right now?" Sonic asked the lady at the desk. "Yes, in fact, I think he's about to leave" she said, surprising both Sonic and Sally that Antoine was already fit for duty. "Thanks for letting us know." Sonic said before going to the elevator with Sally next to him.

When they called the elevator and it's doors opened, they caught both Antoine and Bunnie kissing in the elevator before realizing that they were being watched from the other end of the doors, with Sonic giving the married couple his usual smirk. "Sacre bleu." Antoine said with some shame his voice. Bunnie had post genesis wave looking robotic limbs on her, but pre-genesis wave organic parts as well, wearing her usual pink leotard with some denim shorts on while Antoine looked like his pre-genesis appearance. "Don't worry, I'm sure me and Sonic would have done the same." Sally said. Bunnie giggled at the thought of catching Sonic and Sally in the middle of their own make out session. "Well, it is nice to see the both ya here." Bunnie said as the four of them made their way to the exit. "Well it's not every day that you see someone recover from a coma like Ant here." Sonic said before letting Antoine check himself out. "Well, it iz also not every day zat you get to stay in ze hospital for 4 days after saying you feel fine." Antoine said with his heavy french accent mostly intact.

After leaving the hospital, they thought it would be best to visit their other friends and show that Antoine finally got out of the hospital and feeling well enough to go back on some missions. While walking, some people saw that Antoine was moving about without help from anyone, some clapped at Antoine from recovering so quickly and some went about their business and smiled at the group seeing that the Freedom Fighters were back to full strength, with some helping hands, of course.

However, they had to stop and look in the direction that most of everyone was looking, only to see some object descending from the sky, and looked more and more egg-shaped the closer it got. "It seems I can finally prove zat I'm well enough to fight." Antoine said preparing to go into action as the Death Egg Mk. 2 descended enough that it was visible to everyone from miles away.

"Ah thought you told him to stay outta your sight, sugar." Bunnie said looking at Sally.

"Guess I wasn't clear enough, alright let's get tails and-, the hell." Sally said when seeing the Tails doll in front of them.

"Activating mass teleport matrix," the Tails shaped doll said, catching everyone off guard as to what it was talking about, "Firing."It said before the group covered their eyes from a red flash of light.

When they uncovered their eyes, they were shocked when some of the citizens that they saw before the flash mysteriously vanished. "What in ze world did zat overweight bastard do." Antoine said in a confused tone with a bit of anger to it.

"Establishing connection from Dr. Robotnik to the remaining residence of New Mobotropolis, follow me to the front of the castle." Tails doll said before leading a the group of four to the front of the Castle of Acorn.

Not before long the remaining Freedom Fighters, including the Secret Freedom Fighter, met up with Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, and Antoine in front of the castle, excluding Nicole, the city's artificial intelligence. When they got together, the doll summoned a holo screen with Eggman's face on it, looking with a serious look that even Sally found curious from the hatred of seeing him.

"Hello fellow Freedom Fighters, I am here before you for an ultimatum, to get right down to it. I'm sure you saw that funny looking doll make a bright light not too long ago, go ahead and ask Nicole about what happened just then." Robotnik said with the same serious look on his face.

They all gave the doctor some angry looks when Nicole came in, post genesis appearance, looking a little distraught, surprising everyone, except Eggman. "What's wrong Nicole?" the real Tails said. Nicole tried to make words, but she was still processing what just happened. "Is there something wrong Nicole?" Sally said before the A.I. said something. "Every citizen in this city, even Naugus and Geoffrey, just...vanished." Nicole finally spat out, which everyone responded with gasps and glares at the screen.

"Before you say anything, yes, this was my doing, everyone, except you guys, have been teleported to one of my stations, far to the north. Here, I'll show you." Eggman said, still serious, before pressing some buttons and showing them a glass wall with people from New Mobotroplis and other areas in the world they recognized, Angel Island, the Dragon Kingdom, Mercia, so on and so forth. Some people were trying to break the wall, Naugus couldn't do much without his staff which is most likely in the throne room somewhere on the floor.

"Here's what I plan to do with them if you don't cooperate. I modified the roboticizer in their cell to turn them into Robians and change their hearts into bombs that will destroy them instantly, if you guys try to capture them, they will blow up," everything he said added to the fire of rage in the Freedom Fighters, "If you try to remove the bombs from their chests, and regain their Mobian consciousness, the bombs will deactivate, but if you build a deroboticizer and put their heart bombs back in before they can return to normal, two seconds after the bomb is put back in, they will die." This bit of news actually shocked the team that it was so cunning and evil.

"They will also be programmed to fight on every front you have done to the last robian limb they still have, and cyber attacks of course won't work...and the princess won't get her body back." Eggman said with his serious face intact, but shocked the group as a whole, more so for Sally. "If you wish to spare them, then I would like you to meet me on the Death Egg, turn Sally back to normal, having her die as she should, make sure that everyone that I encountered gets to the city, and then I will give you an hour and a half for your last goodbye's as I end your misery." Eggman continued in a somewhat mournful voice, the Freedom Fighter just stood there dumbfounded on what Eggman just told them, which also made the people behind the glass wall go silent as well.

"If you try to get the people behind me in one fell swoop, they will be injected with poison that will kill them instantly. I'll give you some time to think about what I stated, and just so you know" Robotnik continued, getting everyone's attention," I'll try to keep my empire from doing drastic things when you guys are gone, and also... there are fates worse than death." Eggman finished before the screen disappeared and the doll went limp on the ground.

The big group of Freedom Fighters just tried to process what happened, whilst noticing that Cream and Cheese, Cream's chao, was also gone. "No, we need to find a way to get them without ending our own lives in the process, we have to," she said before turning to the group behind her," We're the Freedom-, Sonic, are you okay?" she asked with Sonic on the ground just staring at nothing, like they already lost. "We can't Sal, there's no way." Sonic said while fighting back some tears and trying to keep calm in all of this madness. "Don't you dare give up on me Sonic." Sally ordered, but Sonic was saying other wise in his own words. "GIVE UP!? Look at what we have, we either kill our own friends and family, yours included, or sacrifice our live for theirs, and you get you body back months in advance. So you tell me, is it alright to...to" Sonic couldn't fight back his tears anymore and surprised everyone with what he would say next at the top of his lungs,"TO KILL ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO HAVE AN "A" FOR EFFORT AND HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE'S BLOOD ON OUR HANDS, because I surely don't know what to do, I just don't know what to do!" Sonic said as he burst into tears that the only right thing to do is to give in and die, or be responsible for the death of millions, if they resist Eggman's ultimatum.

Sally just wanted to cry from the realization of what Sonic, not just thought, but knew was the right thing to do, alas she couldn't from being made of steel and other alloys that were once flesh and bone.

"What do you want us to do, Aunt Sally?" Tails said, which everyone, except Sonic just looked at her, she was the only one making the call here, try to save everyone and have them killed or turned into robians, or give up and save the world from the evil Doctor Robotnik.

"Nicole?" Sally said, still looking at the group.

"Yes, Sally?" Nicole responded with a hint of defeat in her voice.

"Call Eggman, I made my decision, it's very obvious what we need to do." Sally said, just then some other friends not captured by Eggman showed up, looking down themselves, the Chaotix from Angel Island, and Team Dark from G.U.N., minus Hope Kintobor, Robotnik's niece.

"Sally, Eggman is ready to talk with you." Nicole said.

"Put him through." Sally ordered with a sad tone to it.

As soon as Robotnik's face popped up in front of her, he said,"So, I'm guessing you have an answer for me?"

"Just to get this out of the way, every fiber of my mechanical being wants to beat you to bloody pulp, and that I would rather die fighting than just give up, but we have no choice other than to do what you want us to do." Sally said.

"I understand, first I'll deroboticize Sonic's old man, then you will be next, it's the least that I can do." Eggman said, sending a reasonable shock to the FF from Sally's response and Eggman's generosity. "I will meet you in a few minutes, until then, Tails doll, send Jules the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sally Acorn to the deroboticizer room." The doctor said. "Yes, sir." The doll said as it floated back up and the red thing on it's antenna glowed, sending Sonic, his father from the cell in the northern base, and the robotic chipmunk to a random room in the Death Egg. After several minutes of waiting and examining the room, Eggman was there with a serious yet depressing look to him.

"Jules, please step in the platform in that machine, over there." Said the Overlander, pointing to the big machine in the back of the room. Jules stepped onto the platform and readied himself for some pain. "Activating deroboticizer," he said as he fiddled with the controls and the machine came to life, "initiating deroboticization in 5...4...3...2...1." Then in green light, slowly but surely, they saw mechanical parts being transformed to it's original flesh and bone parts. Within roughly 32 seconds, the process was done, and an organic Jules walked forward and gazed at himself, and looked to the overjoyed yet sad hedgehog and robot chipmunk. They both hugged him goodbye, no words given to either of them as it would make his goodbye all the more hurtful, and Jules was sent back from a flash of red, leaving some tears behind as he left.

"Before I go up, what will you do when we're...gone?" Sally asked looking to Eggman.

"I'll just keep my chapters from causing too much havoc, might retire in a decade or so, then see if I can launch a space program, then just do what comes to mind sometime after that." Eggman explained.

"Hm, how kind of you." Sonic said in a tone of mixed sarcasm and depression.

Sally mimicked the sound of inhaling and exhaling and then said "Let's get this over with."

All the while of walking up, she wondered why Eggman decided this course of action. "It was the realization after you threatened me, that one obese man could cause so much hate amongst friends, family, ally's, everyone. It's about as generous as I can get really." He explained, which gave peace to the mechanical furry of why and how this action came to be.

"Alright, initiating deroboticization in 5...4...3...2...1." And, like Jules, she too was flesh and bone once more, although feeling longer than usual. Her appearance was that of the post genesis wave, minus the goggles, surprising both Eggman and Sonic in her new appearance, even she was surprised to see it. She then went up to Sonic for the long awaited kiss, but Eggman stopped them and told them an important detail, "Now, when you get back to the city, I'll give you one and a half hours before I blow it up with the Egg Annihilator, then I'll release the prisoners and set them free, wonder the world and make some new lives. I am sorry if this upsets you. I told the prisoners that this will happen, please understand, it reminds me too much of my old self." He explained, giving a minute for the couple to understand what it meant to him.

"Will the Acorn Family perish along with our home?" Sally asked. "No, they will continue to live on, except for Elias." Robotnik said. With a sigh, Sally instinctively activated her ring blades without knowing her new bracelets were weapons. At first surprised, she then looked more nonchalant at Eggman and asked, "What would happen if I killed you right now?" She said it with a tone of her not wanting to hear the answer to, but needed to anyway.

"I know that you won't kill me under most circumstances, but in that kind of situation I went ahead and added this," he said, showing a small heartbeat monitor with some readings they could hardly make out, Sally now looking dumbfounded at the possible extent of his "kill everyone" part of the ultimatum. "This device is connected to both my heartbeat and the poison injectors on the prisoners." He said, giving both Sonic and Sally the realization of just how dedicated he is to this deal they have. Looking down slightly at the ground in defeat, Sally then said "Just send us back." In another flash of red light, the couple was back in the city and actually shocked everyone with Sally's new appearance.

Everyone prepared for the coming inferno that will take place moments later. For a whole hour, everyone that still had family and friends said goodbye to the ones being held at Robotnik's facility. Afterwards, they went to Chuck's Diner, with his ironic permission, to just hang out for another few minutes and enjoy their last meal together, especially Sally since she couldn't eat from being a robot. While they were eating, everyone told the adventures that they went on, mostly remembering old ones with a good laugh to it, and some of them being ones that Sally did not hear of since becoming Mecha Sally.

"Ah see that our girl here has some new accessories on her." Bunnie said jokingly. "They're more than meets the eye, let me demonstrate." Sally said, getting up from the booth. She then held her fists up and suddenly, two laser blades came out of the new accessories, clarifying that they are fashionable weapons. Everyone gasped at the new weapons Sally produced from her wrists, almost asking why not threaten Eggman to stop what he was doing like last time, hint, hint. "Before you ask, I couldn't threatened him since he knew I wouldn't kill him, and I couldn't kill him because he has a device that connects to both his pulse and the poison injectors." Sally explained, which everyone was at first dumbfounded to hear what length the war monger would take for his end of deal, then some of them just nodded and saying that it was a pretty smart move, even for Eggman, one of few compliments he would receive that day.

After the meal that they enjoyed, everyone went back to the now deconstructing castle to face oblivion. Sonic and Sally went to the Lake of Rings, where the chaos' were also teleported away from, and enjoy a few moments there. They both decided to lay down and see the sky before meeting they're doom and not have the Death Egg in the way. "You know, this was a great ride we had." Sonic said, one arm behind his head and the other around Sally. "Yeah, it seems that way. I wonder if our families will move on from this or try to stop him." Sally said, now in a cuddle position holding Sonic in both arms. "They don't seem like the kind of people to start war over a heroic sacrifice like this," Sonic said, "It wouldn't be like them to do something like it at all, well, maybe your family, but-" Sonic was interrupted by Sally hitting him, in joking way since she knew that he was using a joking tone with his statement on her family.

Sonic chuckled then said, "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll behave after today." With that Sally moved her upper body on top of Sonic, prompting the both of them to smile at each other, followed by a kiss between the two. "It was nice knowing you Sonic." Sally said. "Same here." Sonic said before they continued kissing. Sonic then proceeded to...um... put his fingers in Sally's vest and undershirt, Sally not caring, reaching only about an inch before hearing, "Whoa, whoa, careful now, there could be kids watching from a far." Spooked by the robotic voice, Sonic and Sally stopped they're attempted love making to only see a male human figure with a helmet, some strange looking body gear they don't recognize, and a cloak with a hood over the mask, with a horn protruding from the helmet. They did feel a little embarrassed from the figure possibly spying on them for quite some time.

"Were you... spying on us?" Sally asked with an awkward tone in her voice.

"Do you mean the entire group or just you guys?" The mysterious figure asked.

"Let's go with yes on both of them." Sonic said, with a more serious look on his face.

"I started to spy on you guys as a whole for about 45 minutes, and I will say that that pink... uh... hedgehog did cry a lot of tears when talking to her loved ones. Then I spied on the 2 of you since you guys split from the group, hard to keep up with the blue guys speed, but I managed." The figure said, actually surprising Sonic that he was able to keep up with his movements.

"How were able see us when- oh, never mind." Sonic said, looking at the rifle on his back.

"Actually, it was with this bad boy." The figure said before an unrecognizable sniper looking weapon appeared from thin air. "This is a sniper that a lot of people call the IceBreaker. Took me a lot of money to get this from someone else." The couple then started to look all gloom and stuff from remembering that they will die in a matter of minute, still impressed that a stranger like him could summon a weapon like that from nothing.

"Yes well, you should probably get out of here, this whole city is going to be destroyed from the giant metal egg above us, the group of people included, so that should prompt you to leave ASAP." Sally said, with her and Sonic sporting some sad faces on them while holding each others hands.

"Yeah, no. See, I have orders to stay here and make contact with you after my "boss" tries to stop the whole destroying thing from happening, but that's out of the question with what you guys were doing and- hold on, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself." The man said before slowly taking his helmet off, showing that the horn seemed to be attached to his forehead.

This really caught the couple off guard, seeing that the "man" was really a robot, advanced looking, even if he was roboticized. He had blue lights with some eye like features for eyes and a robotic structure that was a mix of robot and human. A teal color was around the more solid pieces of his face, minus the plate for base of his horn and the parts where his cheeks were or would've been. The part where his cheeks would've been at was some black metal, whenever he spoke it seemed to operate like a jaw, with an orange light from the jaw itself whenever he spoke.

"My full name is Cayde-6, vanguard for the hunters, best looking Exo you'll ever see. But you can call me Cayde, short and simple, nice to meet ya." The android said giving them a thumbs-up to the still surprised couple.

End of Chapter 1. So, did you guys like it, yes, no, maybe so? If you did, please leave a review to comment on it in a good way, or leave some advice. If you didn't like this story , then just leave and find some other fanfic that interests you. Now, before I go and make the next chapter, I would like to ask that you guys give me some slack. This is my first fanfic, and I don't really know how to space information properly with these stories, but I did the best that I could and hope you guys can help me with it if it's that bad in some spots. In the mean time, see you all later in chapter 2.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, I don't have much to say, so here it goes. The Destiny part of this fanfic will start some time after their universe is destroyed. The ships that the Guardians will have will be from Dead Orbit, the rest of the Awoken fleet that wasn't destroyed by Oryx or was rebuilt by the Awoken, and some cruisers that the Guardians have either found, rebuilt, or made from the surrounding shipyards on Earth and in the rest of the Solar System that they could find. Variks has also gotten most of the exiled house members and other lost Fallen to rebuild his House of Judgment, that has chosen Variks as their Kell and is a very close ally to the Guardians.

Most of this will follow Cayde and some of my original characters, mainly the Guardians that I created on Destiny. Oryx and the dark forces has agreed to a non-aggression pact with each other until their new home is found. Any random Guardians that I made up and is a lot like your Guardians, that is a complete coincidence. So let's go ahead and go into the story. Oh, the copyright stuff will stay in chapter 1, just in case.

 **Chapter 2: A strange yet familiar home**

Before their universe was destroyed, the Guardians had failed to kill Oryx in the mission that was called the King's Fall. Oryx wanted to shame the Guardians, so he let them live to tell the tale that they almost killed Oryx, but ultimately failed. Of course, the forces of Darkness still wanted the Taken King to die, but our dark king had other plans. Oryx broke into the Vault of Glass and used the time powers that the Vex had and used to bring back the main dark leaders that were killed by the Guardians. Oryx was reunited with his son, Crota, had gained the trust of the other dark races. After a week of preparing an attack on Earth to kill the Guardians for good, Oryx and the other races were noticing certain parts of the universe crumbling before them. Their home was too unstable to support that many deceased leaders come back to life. Oryx and the dark races were heading to their homes and getting as many of their soldiers and civilians into their ships. The Guardians were also noticing this and did the same thing, get as many people as possible into the ships that Dead Orbit provided.

A lot of their people were left behind, but both Oryx and the Speaker were sure that it was the end of everything. In a flash, both the races of darkness and light had lost their homes. Before the universe collapsed, the Traveler reawakened and told the Speaker that it needed to escape to another dimension and wait for them to summon it. It disappeared and was mentally linked to the Speaker until it returned to their new home. That was months ago, and they were ready to move on, finding some suitable universes. But one seemed to call out to them.

Cayde and his ghost were reading some comics that their friend has lent them. Joseph, an old Hunter that recently lost his ability to walk, has given Cayde some relics from before the Golden Age that might suit his interest, partly because he wants Cayde to hold on to them for paying back the number of times he was saved by him, and mostly because Cayde was really bored when it got to the second month of their new home exploration.

"This is a really fantastic comic that you got from Joseph." Said Cayde's ghost. "What issue is this?" Cayde went to the cover to see the issue number, also giving him a big title on the cover.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, issue number 247." Cayde said. "I wonder what happened to them that they stopped such a great comic?" Cayde asked rhetorically, knowing the answer his ghost was gonna give him.

"Copyright issues when they tried to include the Traveler in their story. But it was mainly the reason that the series was being pacified and didn't interest anyone without an evil villain." The ghost said, which actually reminded Cayde of the main reason. "A shame too, well so far the interesting ones, from my perspective, is before the Super Genesis Wave ends. Let's just hope we can it pick up from where it was left off, add the dark armies, and give Sal, along with a few others, a more solid personali-" The Exo was cut off from the intercom turning on and hearing Zavala's voice shortly after.

"Cayde, could you please come up to the bridge, we need you to see this and confirm our suspicions." Zavala said before Cayde sighed. "Well, looks like my 27 days of reading this comic series is over, for now." He said before carrying the comic book with him putting some fingers on a specific page. "What I, and probably you as well, should be pointing out is the fact that Zavala needs you to confirm some suspicions that he has, as well as Ikora." The small machine said.

"Yeah, well let's go see what it is first." Cayde said, he then saw someone who wanted to see the comic issue that he held in his hand. "Here you go, Jack." Cayde said before throwing the comic to a rather big Titan with some armor that made him look like a bull. "Thanks, Cayde." Said the Titan before going into his room to read the comic in private. Cayde was reciting in his mind the last 53 or so issues that came after 247 while he walked to the bridge, which was on the same level.

Cayde then appeared before Commander Zavala, the Titan vanguard, and Ikora Rey, the Warlock vanguard. "So, I'm assuming that you need me to 'confirm some suspicions' that you two had, right?" The hunter asked, trying to give off a smug impression. "Precisely, take a look at this footage of the new universe we're at right now." Zavala said in his usual serious voice. On the screen was a sort of white ball, reminding them of the Traveler, with one light that was gleaming from the orb. "Right, anything else?" Cayde said in an "are you okay" tone. "Yes, now look at the different positions that we took of it." Zavala said, showing pictures in other obvious to not-so-obvious positions. "Cayde, is this light following us for no reason or to get our attention?" Ikora asked. After a few moments, Cayde finally said. "It looks like a sort of light that you see when someone is either calling you over or calling for help. Is there anything else you guys thought of?" Cayde asked, with Zavala giving him a quick response. "When we slow down the footage, what looks like Morse code appears. It's too fast for us to see, do you think you can look and see what it says?" The Awoken commander said.

With a sigh, the Hunter said, "I'll try my best." After saying that, he was presented with the footage in slow motion, giving him the fast blinking light that the other two saw as well. "It's Morse code alright, it also says that it's inviting us to stay and help them, while at the same time saying that we found our new home." Cayde said, surprising the two vanguards with his amazing sight.

"Alright, I guess that settles it, we head toward the universe and make a home there, then see- what the hell is that?!" Zavala said before seeing a weird robot thing that looked like a sentry from Halo, but sporting a white paint job with bright blue lights on it.

"Warning, universe is temporarily closed off to all of you, for now." The machine said. "This unit will present your small robot friend with the images of the events that took place in this universe that may take place as well." This did prompt everyone to second guess it, but Cayde's ghost went to the window any way.

"Uh, ghost, what are you doing?" Cayde asked his ghost friend.

"Just doing what he said. I don't see anything wrong with this robot, it reminds me of the Traveler." The ghost said, surprising everyone in the room. Although they were shocked to hear it, they did process that the weird machine outside the window would be equally as powerful as the Traveler.

With a sigh, Cayde of course said "Alright go ahead, but if he does try to kill you, I'll kill him back, you here me out there?" Cayde said with a serious tone to his threat. "Affirmative, now, young machine, please stay still for this procedure." The machine said to the ghost. When they were ready, the machine outside then summoned an ethereal yet visible link to the ghost, causing it to shutter in the air for a few moments, all the while Cayde still keeping his hand cannon in hand. After that the machine left and headed toward the universe that it warned about. "I have... all the information that we need... to know about the universe ahead of us" The ghost said sounding tired and amazed by the information.

"So what the hell was that thing talking about with the universe?" Zavala said

"And did it damage you?" Cayde said, sounding worried for his small friend.

"I will need to process the information... done. That machine is an invention from a greater power to protect the universes from invaders and other harmful things out here that could harm it. This greater power could be the same thing that saved us from the destruction of our universe, and something equally as strong for Oryx and the other races that fight us. We can't enter now because it's not stable enough for us to enter, for now at least." The ghost said.

"Alright, ghost, give me and Ikora the information regarding the universe rules and that machine, you and Cayde will look at the events that transpired in that universe." Zavala said, knowing Cayde might be bored from the information about the universe rules and the machine.

"Cool, this will be either the greatest or the worst experience ever, the real fun is what I might see. Come on ghost, we have some images to decipher after you give them their half of the info." Cayde said, pointing to the two vanguards. "Right away." His ghost said, before putting the Titan's and the Warlock's information on a nearby console. After that, they walked back to Cayde's room, his decorated room had Fallen, Hive, Vex, and Cabal ornaments and trophy's he gathered over the years.

"So, think you can tell me a little something-something about the imagery before I look at them?" Cayde asked his loyal ghost. "You may recognize them, that much I will say." The floating robot said. "Hm, fair enough, alright, let's look." Cayde said with an attempted exciting look on his face. After seeing the images, he went from exciting to absolutely stunned when looking and processing what he was seeing. "Should we go through them and then call our head honchos to look themselves?" The ghost asked, prompting Cayde to respond with a serious look, saying, "Yes, give me about an hour to look at this." Cayde said, now sifting through a nearby metal box for possible images.

The Speaker, Ikora, and Zavala sat down waiting for Cayde to show up, he was a few minutes late, which gave the two vanguards enough time to download the simplified data that they got before being called up. The three of them sat in a sort of office that the Speaker stayed in, only sitting down when there was an urgent meeting to attend to or just tired from walking around in this room.

"Well, Cayde seems to have been running errands in the bridge, it looks like he's approaching my door now." The Speaker said before Cayde walked in with a big stack of papers at a moderate pace. "Why have you called us here, Hunter vanguard?" The Speaker asked.

"Well, before we get to that, please know that these images are from that universe," Cayde said, pointing at the giant ball outside the ship. "None of these images have been fabricated or altered when I last saw them, right ghost?" Cayde asked, looking at his ghost. "Yes, It's true." The ghost said. Then, looking at a wall, the small robot then projected the images on the wall. The group of three couldn't believe what they saw. They all saw a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog fighting against an obese looking human with a big orange mustache in a giant spider robot, with the human as his passenger. "Is this some of joke, because this is a little amusing." Ikora said, Zavala looking curious at it, and the Speaker just staring at it.

"Honestly, I wish I was, but this could be the universe we go into." Cayde said, putting down a piece of paper on the Speakers desk. "Here's the same image, notice anything different about it?" The three of them looked at it and saw the same image, but with speech bubbles and a different angle altogether. "Now here are a few more images and the pages they come from. Ghost, if you could be so kind?" Cayde said to his ghost, giving a nod motion in reply. Before all five of them, images came up on the wall, with Cayde putting down the same yet different images on the desk, the vanguards and the Speaker looking at them. They all had the same scene, while they were both at different angles and one set of images having speech bubbles and the not containing them.

"Is this enough to convince you all completely, or are you still skeptical about this?" Asked the Exo to his flesh counter parts. "Not entirely, I'm afraid, we all do seem skeptical." the Speaker said, also speaking for the other two vanguards. "Alright, well there are images that seems to be out of place. These are the prediction images that the universe thing gave us. Ghost, go ahead." Cayde said to his ghost, which showed some images that would appear later on. Sonic and Sally, as a robian, walking in town, Antoine kissing Bunnie in the elevator, The Freedom Fighters looking depressed with Sonic crying on the ground, Sally becoming a mobian again, and everyone having a good time a Chuck's diner. "From what I could tell, these images show the Freedom Fighters being back to full strength, but the obese guy giving them some sort of choice that they don't like, but accept anyway, and one of their final moments in that diner. These last four images will convince you that this is true." Cayde explained, prompting to his ghost to show the images.

These four images made the Speaker, and the other vanguards gasp at these pictures. "That was the same expression that I had." Cayde said, looking at the images. These images showed Cayde giving Sonic and Sally a thumbs up, Zavala outside a door to a room with Eggman inside it, Ikora making some sort of platform, and the Speaker at a console in New Mobotropolis.

The three of them, Cayde and his ghost looking at them, were in utter shock that this was a prediction from the robot that they met not too long ago. "Now do you believe this, because I have one thing left that can convince all of you and also give hope to us all." Cayde said, but everyone was convinced and waited for that last piece of info that would give them hope. "Another Morse code message was sent to us and I'm sure with what it says, which was that we can summon the Traveler to our new home." After Cayde said that, the Speaker stood up and looked at him. This bit of news also surprised Ikora and Zavala.

"Are you sure about this bit of information?" Asked the Speaker.

"Yes, I'm very certain about this." Cayde said.

"Well it seems we have a new to prepare ourselves for." The Speaker said in a joking tone.

"You know, I like the way you think. So how long will it be when we're allowed to enter this universe?" Cayde asked.

"From what we can tell, we have 312 hours before we are allowed to get on the Earth like planet, maybe less for the universe in general. In the meantime, Cayde, you and your ghost will make a book that covers the important parts of this universe, the major parts we may need to know will be up to you. Me, Ikora, and the Speaker will look into what we need in order to summon the Traveler. Now let's hop to it, we have important jobs to take care of." Zavala said, which let the ghost make the images disappear and followed Cayde out after he cleaned his mess on the Speakers desk.

After 24 hours, Cayde was able to make a detailed book with important details in the Sonic comic universe, but has specific chapters on the cover for the details that they need to know about it. Cayde and some other caretakers, normal people helping the Guardians with some work they couldn't take care of at times, were carrying boxes of these books, he and his group were walking in the last of the meeting that Zavala and Ikora held with most of the other Guardians in the room. The two vanguards were telling everyone about the information that they gathered on the universe, from the time that they will be allowed to enter to what was inside the universe. "Now, we have Cayde here with some books on this universe, containing the important details that you will need to know about it. There are more books, I presume?" The Awoken vanguard asked Cayde.

"Of course, but the details that you need to learn from now to when we interact with the inhabitants will be the chapters that you will see on the cover. It won't be a whole lot, but it will be what you absolutely need to know about this universe." Cayde said, making some Guardians to sigh from his statement. The Exo vanguard then put the boxes on the long sideways table in front of the gathering.

"Guardians, you are to read the chapters that are presented on the cover of these books within 288 hours from now. Anyone who doesn't will be on dish washing duty for two weeks." Zavala's statement made almost every Guardian eager to get their own book. Everyone knew that anyone that washes dishes are to wash them alone for punishment, two weeks worth would be a ten man job, even more if they included the civilian dishes.

"We have more books on the way, so no need to shove and push for your own copy. There's plenty of books to go around, including me, Ikora, and the Speaker." Zavala said, making the other guardians calm down a bit since there would be enough for them, hopefully including some of the new recruits that they have. "Alright, everyone make lines of three for the Hunters, Warlocks, and Titan's. Everyone will get one, just keep it orderly." Cayde said before the Guardians started getting up in their respected lines. Everyone walked up and got their own books and just when they ran out, some more caretakers walked in with boxes of these books. It would take 20 whole minutes before everyone got a book and sat back down.

"In 144 hours, we will be able to go into the universe and observe the inhabitants for any customs that we may need to use, and also see the events that take place on this planet. This meeting is over, everyone dismissed." Zavala said before the normal Guardians walked out and back to there rooms.

In one of the Guardian fire team rooms, there were three people in it. Alex, a male human Titan that had orange hair, a scar going through the exterior of his eyelid and his face, Zardic-3, an exo hunter that looked like an ordinary exo with a giant plate on his forehead and blue lights for his eyes and mouth, and Sarifine, an awoken warlock with purplish white hair that goes just below her shoulders, faint purple skin, and glowing blue eyes. These three were one of the elite Guardian teams that went through everything, from the devil Archon Priest to the failed King's Fall mission.

"You know, this book ain't half bad. Then again, I'm not big on reading myself." Alex said.

"Yeah, so far it hasn't been as grueling as I originally thought. Still, shooting at the firing range beats this any day." Zardic said.

"Honestly, it does get more interesting and crazy the more we read. The Xorda, The Bem, The Black Arms, a nanite city, and look at the map in chapter 3!" Sarifine said, prompting the other two to see what it was. They both gasped at the map of Mobius, it looked a lot like Earth in some places, but looked a little disorienting in other places. The human and the exo tilted the book in different ways to make sense of the fused Africa, Asia, and Europe.

"This thing really does get weirder and weirder by the chapter." Alex said, in a sort of bewildered tone.

After a few minutes, Cayde walked in and said, "Hey, just needed to check up on everyone to see if their reading, what chapter are you guys on?"

In order, Alex, Zardic, and Sarifine said what chapter they were on.

"23."

"18."

"113."

"Alright, Sarifine is near an interesting part of this book that will blow your minds. Oh, faction meeting are happening in 4 hours, so be ready. See ya around." Cayde said before he left the group to continue their reading. Alex is in New Monarchy, Zardic is in Dead Orbit, and Sarifine is in the Future War Cult, or FWC for short.

After a while, Alex and Zardic nearly caught up with Sarifine before going to their respected faction meetings, which just talked about how they could persuade the native inhabitants of their faction's ideas. Fireteam Steel, which was the team name the three had chosen, was not the best team ever, far from it. If anything, they were lucky to go through everything that they had and live to tell the tale.

After the anxious 144 hour wait, it was finally time for the Guardians to be allowed in the universe, and on designated areas on Mobius. They couldn't interfere with the events that would occur in 144 hours from now, or six days. They could only wait for the universe keepers to allow them to interact with the inhabitants of this world.

"Alright, Guardians, it's time go to our new home and establish a fighting force there to combat the darkness that will arrive in 144 hours from now. We will go to the planet and observe what is happening and what customs that they had to be more familiar with said customs. The force needed to get into the universe and to our destination will be provided by the keepers. Be ready to brace yourself when we go through, and may the Light prevail in this war." Zavala said in the fleet wide broadcast before closing it for now.

The fleet moved forward to the edge of the universe's infinite barrier, the size dictating it's importance than it's actual size. (I will explain my terminology in what a universe would look like and what it can do some other time). The fleet then saw the contraption that they were going to in to travel from the outside of the universe to the planet Mobius. This thing looks so bizarre that no one could describe it without looking at a picture of it first.

Generally, it had a multi-ringed structure in the center, which was big enough for half of the fleet, and had cylinder shaped generators around it. It gave off a blue glow and was the second most spectacular thing that the Guardians have ever seen, the first being the revival of the Traveler. Zavala had also read in the decrypted data that this transportation structure had the power of 1 sextillion Hiroshima bombs. This might damage some systems on their ships, luckily they would mostly be non-vital systems.

"May God and the Light help us now." Zavala said before entering the structure. The keepers sent a text message saying 'Are you ready?' As soon as a Guardian was cleared to respond with yes, and then send it, they were immediately slung forward by the force of the structure's full power. After 12 seconds of gripping handles and such, just to not be pushed against the wall, they were stabilized and saw a very fantastic scene.

In front of them were galaxies that zoomed by them, the ones up close were ones they never saw before, the farther galaxies being the ones that they saw in high power telescopes. Eventually, they saw the most familiar one of them all, the Milky Way galaxy, just going by Andromeda. When going closer to the familiar galaxy, they gradually slowed down.

"The rest of the fleet is taking pictures of the galaxies we first saw. To think we would be the fastest things in the universe at a speed we never thought of, for a few minutes of course." Cayde said, which was what everyone thought of. They then saw some very familiar planets, Pluto (debatable), Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and then stopped near an Earth like planet. Cayde's map was not far off, North and South America was pretty much the same, and then the Europe, Asia, and Africa continents being one whole, clear piece of landmass.

"Guardians, Fallen, and citizens alike, we have made it to our destination." The Speaker said on a fleet wide broadcast, making everyone in the ships cheer, despite some non-essential systems being broken, but still fixable. "There will be specific areas that we can not interact with until six days have passed, as we have already synched up with the time periods of this planet." Zavala said on the same broadcast, "We will begin landing parties in 3 hours, tops. The Guardians will be in said landing parties to scope out some dangers that we may not know about this place, but this isn't Earth, not anymore, this planet is what happens when you anger an alien race with very advanced technology. Cayde will be the party leader of one group of 12 Guardians, as well as me and Ikora going to different continents for support of the inhabiting nations." Zavala said, making Cayde put on a really happy face, being the physics of this universe. Why? We may never know, but it is what it is. Cayde then walked back to his room to get the gear he waited to use for a long time.

End of Chapter 2. I haven't kept a good schedule for this stories chapters, but I'll keep it within weeks, days if I'm lucky. My original Chapter 2 was already hitting the 10,000 word mark, so I split it in two so it's not painstakingly long. The action scenes will be short and describe the general fight. Later chapters will have more detailed fights, but a whole lot compared to the next chapter's fights. Just use your imagination for it, that's all. Onward, to Chapter 3!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey there guys. This is actually very exciting for me. People are actually taking time to read what I write and either help me iron out my writing or actually inspire me to keep writing, which is two to three people in total, but that's still enough for me. For now it's small, which is understandable, and I will always keep my goals small for a really, really, REALLY long time. Warning, long chapter awaits you all, good luck. Oh, and all copyright goes to Ken Penders for his characters in this chapter and so on, just in case of the copyright laws.

 **Chapter 3: Gaining allies**

After the 3 hour mark, about 12 Guardians, 6 Guardians for each of the 2 shuttles, which includes Cayde, boarded their shuttles and waited for takeoff. "Alright, we are going there to not just scout the area for danger, but also to have you guys be more familiar with the land." Cayde said over the comm system connecting to the shuttles for everyone to hear. "We are landing on Soumerca, near the 'Mysterious Cat Country', just don't be surprised if they attack you when they see you, okay?" The exo said before hearing multiple 'yes, sirs' in the comm system.

During the landing procedure, the vanguard explained to them that they will gradually move from Soumerca to Northamer, by sparrow, of course. The main objective was to show the Wolf Pack and Felidae that they meant no harm to anyone on this planet. After that, they would head to Station Square to get the U.F. on board, then head to New Mobotropolis for the Kingdom of Acorn. When they landed, they then set up a sparrow spawning device near them to call their sparrows. After that they summoned their sparrows and took off, apparently there was a meeting that the two nations were having, so they went to an area between the Wolf Pack and Felidae nations. It was also around 10:00 A.M. where they were, which was a bit south of the Felidae nation.

As they were heading to the location, there were some feline mobians that followed them along some tree tops. When going to an open field, however, the felines had stayed behind since they didn't have that tree advantage. It took a few minutes to reach their destination, but the Guardians were greeted with threatening glares that didn't phase them, and some people were about to draw a weapon of some kind, but would never have chance to draw them on these strangers.

"Alright, set your sparrows to 'no fade' mode, we don't want to scare them." Cayde quietly said into the mic in his helmet. They then summoned their ghosts to have the sparrows not fade away, knowing that the natives would assume magic or invisibility tech for the little robots. Cayde and his merry crew went through the village that contained people with looks of both fear and suspicion, more fear in the civilians than in the soldiers. The exo and his team was stopped by four guards that were guarding the entrance to the building with the leaders inside during the meeting.

"State your business here!" The first wolf guard said.

"We are here to ask for your leaders to be allies with our people, we mean no harm to anyone here." The vanguard said, wearing his helmet to conceal his real face.

"Oh? What are you, some new nation that just popped up out the ground?" The first feline guard asked.

"I only wish to negotiate with your leaders, on why I must is information pertaining the head honchos inside. Is there anything that I have to do to get in?" Cayde asked, hoping not answer the question that would come next.

"Who are you, where are you from, and why don't you take off the helm?" The second wolf guard said, making the other guards and nearby bystanders to agree with them.

"My name is Cayde, location is confidential to you guys, and are you sure you want to see this face of mine?" The vanguard said.

"Yes, you do have to show your face, and if the location is top secret to us, then don't bother, right guys?" The second feline guard said, with the other guards accepting the top secret location part of this guys reasons and roll with it.

"Okay, just don't be surprised by my face, it would scare a lot of people away." Cayde said. He then proceeded to take off his helmet, slowly of course, and have everyone's reaction be a gasp at his metallic appearance. "Before you guys start, I was built this way and not roboticized by Eggman. Oh, and I am of course the most handsome exo you'll ever see." Cayde said in a playful tone, giving everyone a more innocent vibe from him. The guards looked at each other and then sent the second feline and first wolf guards to go get Lupe and Hathor.

"We will get our leaders, stay here until then." The feline guard said before he and the first wolf guard went to fetch their leaders. With that, Cayde was about to put on his helmet when he saw some kid mobians around him, stopping the action.

One little feline girl came up in a shy manner and asked Cayde, "Are you really a robot?"

"Of course I am, though, I prefer that you call me an exo. It be like me calling you... um... a furry human!" The **robot** said, making the little girl and some kids giggle a bit. "I literally just made that up." Cayde said, making them giggle more.

"Could I get a closer look at you?" The little feline girl asked in a sheepish manner.

"Sure. If you do stick your fingers in my jaw..., well it may not be the most pleasant thing that you'll feel?" Cayde said, although the girl was confused at the last part, she and the other kids didn't put there fingers or hands near the orange light that came from in his mouth. Cayde bent down close to their level and waited for the one who asked to examine his face.

"Woah." The small feline said while feeling the metal parts of Cayde's face. After a few seconds, both wolf and feline children went up to Cayde to also examine his face. After a few minutes, Cayde tried to stand up, but some kids holding on to his jaw came with him. Although it slightly hurt for the exo, he went past the pain and decided to go with his mobian beard. After a few moments of fun with the kids, Cayde then heard "I'm guessing this is our 'exo' friend?" from a voice behind him.

Cayde turned around as fast as he could, what with his beard of mobians, to see the two leaders he wanted to negotiate with, Grand Chief Lupe and Queen Hathor. This did make Cayde freeze in place for a few seconds before he set the kids down, which also made the kids make disappointed sounds. "Oh, hello. So nice to see you two." Cayde said in a somewhat nervous tone.

"I'm surprised. When they said that you were some mechanical being, I was planning on taking you out when we came out here." Lupe said, making Hathor giggle a bit.

"Okay, before we go to talk in private, how much did you guys see?" Cayde asked, dreading for it to be a long amount of time.

"It was about a minute, right Lupe?" Hathor asked, which made Cayde groan before Lupe answered.

"It was about a minute and a half." Lupe answered, looking at the vanguard as he groaned louder. "On a serious note, you said that we would speak in private. Why would we agree to that?" Lupe said.

Cayde snapped to attention at that question to answer with, "Because, what we need to tell you is something we don't need the civilians to worry too much about. Don't worry, it's only about where we're from, and that alone is confidential in our books." The exo said, which made some people suspicious. "Trust me on this, we do need to talk **and** negotiate on these matters." Cayde finished.

Lupe looked over at the feline queen to see what she thought, which Hathor gestured 'your call'. "We will hear it out and see if we can negotiate, you may also bring three of your guards along with you, robot." Lupe said, making a joking tone with the name she called Cayde. Some of the Guardians did groan for Cayde to choose a group of three with him.

"Alright." Cayde said to Lupe before turning to choose a group three he had already thought about. "Before I pick a group, know this. Two days of dishes for verbal attacks on the locals, two weeks for any physical attack, a month that you guys start fighting each other when left alone, and two and a half yearss for starting a war between these nations. With that out of the way, Team Steel, your with me." Cayde said. His dish threats alone made only Team Steel move from their spots, everyone else just waited for Cayde to be out of sight before they moved around.

Cayde, Alex, Zardic, and Sarifine went to the room that the two leaders already met for their meeting, discussing about Eggman's sudden disappearance. Team Steel still had their helmets on, concealing their species. The six of them finally made it to a room with some lone rows of chairs in it, two tables facing each other, and some oil lanterns to illuminate the room. Hathor and Lupe then spun the tables around to have the long sides face the rows of chairs, and sat down behind the table to face the Guardians that were just sitting down when they saw them.

"Now that we are in private, please explain to us what you're doing here and where you're from." Lupe said.

"Our main objective is to secure some allies for a war that will soon arrive. This war is not fought by the ideals of individual people, but by the two most popular named entities, it is fought by the Light and the Darkness. I'll try my best to explain where we were from and what it's history was. You may not believe it, but you must trust me on this." Cayde explained before starting with his story.

Cayde started with the time before the Traveler came to Earth, 700 years prior to his present day. He then told them about the stories of the Golden Age, a time of tranquility and advancements in technology to colonize the local planets that were already terraformed. He went on to the stories of the collapse, which was little to no information with the exception of the cause being the Darkness. He kept going from the formation of the Guardians, to the Traveler in a slumber before it came back, to the dark armies themselves, and then from the major victories and defeats of the Guardians, to the end of their universe and it's cause, Oryx. Cayde had to tell them everything he knew about the war against the darkness and how they found this universe. The explanation alone took about an hour to finish, but it did let the two think on the information and see if he told the truth.

"Okay, we know about you and your 'army'. But how do you know about us if you were in a different universe." Lupe asked, giving off a suspicious tone in the air.

"You'll have to trust me on this, but we know about your universe through these things." Cayde said before taking out some comics from the small courier back pack he had on him. The comics that he showed were issues 213 and 214, the same ones that showed the events of the Wolf Pack and Felidae nearly going to war over the Ancient Onyx. This did answer their question but were still confused on how this was possible. But before asking, Cayde already went and answered that question.

"The theory is that every universe can look at each other through certain media and storytelling. We hope to find a connection in this universe to confirm our theory, but that was 12,000 years ago in this universe, long enough for the evidence to be wiped from this planet and the entire universe completely." The two leaders then tried to process the information given to them. Then they relaxed a bit from the exo's answer and proceeded to go back to their listening positions, setting aside what Cayde said for later.

"Now, before we move on to the aliens that caused the collapse, let me introduce the species of the Light. Alex, please take off your helmet." Cayde said, turning to Alex and walking to him.

"If you insist." Alex said before removing his helmet. The two were not very surprised that an overlander, to them, would be revealed to them. He then straightened his posture and said, "Alex, human Titan, and member of the New Monarchy."

"Thank you, Alex. He is a human, to you that would be the overlander's ancestor. I'm not sure if it would apply to mobians as well, but let's leave it as the ancestors of overlanders." Cayde said. He then turned to the hunter and gestured him to present himself. The exo complied and removed his helmet.

"Zardic-3, exo hunter, and member of Dead Orbit." Zardic said, which made the two mobian leaders throw an eyebrow up while looking at Cayde.

"I thought it would be more formal to only have him look like the only exo, but the kids were having too much fun. Now, exos used to be human looking war machines, but were then given full intelligence for the need of more Guardians. Now they're an entire, mechanical species. Sarifine, you know what to do." Cayde said, with Sarifine complying and takes off her helmet.

Before Sarifine removed her helmet, Hathor and Lupe assumed awoken looked like humans, but with a light and dark texture that looked like the taken. Instead, they get a human with faint purple skin. Her cheeks glowed with some sort of light aurora, purplish white hair that looked like it glowed a bit, and literal glowing blue eyes. It definitely made the two leaders amazed in her **glowing** beauty.

"She's absolutely stunning, even for someone of human origin." Hathor said. Lupe just made an "uh-huh" sound for agreeing with the feline.

"Well, with these three out of the way, let me just give you some data pads on the five dark species. It will only take a few minutes to download and-" Before he could finish, Cayde was cut off by an exo Titan over the visual broadcast provided by his ghost. When the exo came on screen, he immediately said what was going on outside.

"We have movement out here, sir. And from the looks of it, it ain't even friendly." The exo said in a British accent. "It looks like some organized fallen preparation out there. They seem to circle around the village. It's only an assumption, were not really seeing what's moving, but the movement pattern suggests fallen." The exo finished. This made Cayde worry a bit for it to be fallen activity outside the borders of this village.

"Understood, we'll be ready for whatever it is out there when we finish up here. We should be done in a few minutes." Cayde said.

"Good, these things could be coming at us in a matter of moments. If you don't come out by then, we'll hold the line as best we can until you do show up. See you in a few." The mechanical Titan said before terminating the broadcast.

"Ghost, do you think you could get some data pads or papers ready for them?" Cayde asked the ghost that was still on front of him.

"Yes. Will it be about the dark species and their leaders?" The ghost asked his robotic friend.

"Yeah. Also add in some details I didn't mention yet about the guardians. In the meantime," Cayde said before turning to the three other guardians in the room. "We need to head out and try to find out if it's fallen or local activity out there." Cayde said.

"There aren't any of our people out there, or anyone for that matter, to be circling around this village." Lupe said. "It could be these 'fallen' that you speak of. Hopefully we will know enough about them to drive them out of these lands."

"Well, that's problem number one. When any species of darkness settles in, they will fight to there last man and breath to keep the territory that they claimed as their own. In other words, we need to kill the fallen to at least give them a thought to not attack here or give them a reason to keep on attacking. Luckily, we have our own fallen house that we can call up for backup." Cayde said, making the two leaders confused at the last bit of information.

"I have the pads ready, which was easier to do than print it on paper. I've highlighted the fallen in them so that you know what it is you'll be up against. We already know what they are and how they work." The ghost said before handing Lupe and Hathor said data pads. It was very simple to use just in case they didn't know how to use some more complicated data pads that were the norm for the Guardians.

With information in hand, the two leaders prepared their warriors for battle after leaving the building. The Guardians needed to work quick for immediate defenses. With the permission of the village inhabitants, they literally tore down the building that the meeting took place in to set up basic, temporary hard cover for the immediate attack. The Guardians then put down some strange device that was very peculiar to the feline and wolf people.

"Before you ask, this is a hard light shield generator that will put up a protective dome around the village. Upside, none of the fallen will get in until the shield runs out of power, which is a short term generator. Downside, we can't leave or shoot at the fallen without ricochet hitting us. Lupe, permission to activate the shield?" Cayde said.

"Go ahead." Lupe answered. When the device was activated, it sent some sort of energy/plasma substance into the air from the center of the village. After reaching a certain point in the air, the dome formed and continued downward until it forced it's way into the ground with a loud bang. It did startle the mobians, but the Guardians were already used to loud bangs.

"The shield will last for another 40 minutes, giving us more than enough time to plan a good defensive strategy before it expires." Cayde said. But then a huge explosion appeared at the front of the village. "Or have the fallen use a walker to decrease the time. Team Onyx, head out and destroy that walker. We don't need both the immediate fallen and a long range tank." Cayde said, prompting a team of two Titans, one of which was the british exo who was named Serven-13 and the other being Jack from previous chapter, and a Warlock to get on their sparrows and ride toward the shield. When they were close to the shield, it opened up with a wide enough opening for the three of them to exit at the same time. They then went in the direction that the shot came from, as well as kill some fallen on the way out.

The fallen outside moved to the open area in the shield to try and get in, but their attempt failed when the shield closed. Another explosion, like the last one, hit the same area like the previous one. "We only have about 20 minutes to think of a defensive plan against the fallen. Guardians, warriors, round up!" Cayde said, prompting every Guardian and mobian warrior to gather around the exo for a plan to fend off the fallen attack.

Their plan was to have the Guardians to be their first line of defense, since they had guns and armor that can be hit by a modern day rocket launcher and barely have a scratch on it. The mobians were put closer to the center of the village for a last ditch effort and to send in warriors when the Guardians were overwhelmed. The warriors would also use arrows for long range support.

When they got into position with the help of Cayde, Lupe as a warrior chief, and Hathor as a strategist for the three forces to listen and follow. The mobian fighting force had about 40 trained warriors, 20 from each nation, and an extra 16 militia warriors from the village. Everyone was ready to fight, all familiar with killing and not showing mercy to the fallen. Cayde was with two other Guardians, a hunter and a warlock, and told them what they needed to do. When the warning from the shield generator rang, they knew they had only mere seconds before the shield disappeared. Everyone's hearts were racing, waiting for the shield to go down.

Hm... Que Two steps from Hell: Unforgiven for the extra excitement, like in movies, if you want.

When it did, the fallen ran toward the village as fast as they could before being gunned down by the Guardians. Fallen death cries could be heard from everywhere if one would listen hard enough, but it was drowned out by the sound of gunfire. Luckily, the walker was either distracted or destroyed, since there were no other shots from it so far. Lupe was worried and anxious to protect her people, while Hathor was worried that some her own would die from the enemy or she would be killed, but decided to accept the death of some of her own and her very life when it happened.

The death of Guardians prompted the mobian warriors assigned to a certain area to charge at the fallen and try to kill as many as they could before the Guardian that died returned to his/her spot. This went on for an hour before the fighters were pushed back to the next line, which was littered with hard cover from the meeting house that they tore down. The fallen went from pushing forward with numbers to organized skirmishes of twenty every few seconds before the next wave came. The ground surrounding the village was reddish purple from the bodies of the aliens heading toward the village. Arrows and bullets were filling the air along with screams from friend and foe alike, either from injury or death.

The battle was nearly over after a few hours of fighting and only very few fallen being seen on all sides every now and then. The Guardians and the mobians thought that they had won, but then they saw the fallen that were gathering at the end of the road that lead to the main road. What was left of the fallen soldiers were about thirty or so dregs and vandals, but were accompanied by an Archon Priest that was wielding only swords. They gathered at the entrance of the village and started their charge toward the village.

The Guardians and the warriors had to try and meet them between the village and the main road. Cayde's guys were tired from the main part of the initial battle, while the mobians had 5 warrior casualties and 7 militia casualties. Were it not for the fallen having mostly melee soldiers, the warriors would have had more dead on their hands. The small army of light was later accompanied by Team Onyx, both confirming that the walker is destroyed and giving the fallen two sides to fight. "Everyone, focus on the dregs and the vandals! Leave the Archon Priest for last!" Cayde yelled, knowing the fallen would eventually figure out their plan.

The Guardians and archers focused on the fallen with firearms while the warriors with spears and swords focused on the melee fallen. The warriors, regulars and militia alike, did lose another 12 people, but kept fighting anyway. The fallen grunts were finally taken care of and the Priest was the only one left. The Guardians and the warriors then attacked the Archon Priest all at once, but the Priest would not go down easy.

After the first attack, the Priest did not waste time to counterattack. The giant fallen swiped his sword and nicked some of the fighters, nearly killing some warriors. Every one kept their distance from the alien to not die from it. Luckily, the Guardians saved up their super abilities and would use them when the fallen's guard was down. Cayde was able to use multiple super abilities, which did keep the Priest on it's toes.

When the alien's shield went down, some of the mobian warriors charged toward the legs and stabbed them to bring it down on it's knees and drop it's swords as well. The Guardians then got their supers ready, which were all the third subclass of each class, and waited for Cayde to say so. The warriors then headed to the middle of the village to tend to their wounded. Cayde readied his Golden Gun, aimed it at the Priest's head, and fired it in it's eye, with Cayde walking away as it hit the fallen's eye. As the Archon Priest screamed in pain and rage, the other Guardians then used their abilities and pretty much vaporized the Priest. Cayde walked over to Lupe and Hathor with the carnage behind him.

"How's everyone doing over here?" Cayde asked in a mixed tone of curiosity and seriousness. The carnage that was behind him had mostly died out, with the Priest giving it's death scream. Lupe and Hathor gave Cayde some sad faces before telling him the conditions of their warriors.

"We've lost 24 warriors already, with another 5 dying from internal bleeding. Some have lost their limbs and the lucky ones have minor cuts and bruises. My only complaint is that while we die, you guys just come back within seconds of your deaths, ready to go on fighting." Lupe said in a somewhat saddened tone, giving Cayde a guilty feeling.

"The whole revival thing is both a blessing and a curse. We can come back to keep fighting the Darkness, but that means that when this is all over we stay as Guardians and keeping fighting what ever evil there may be out there. It's a coin that we keep for the rest of our lives. One side is good while the other is bad. It's something we also hate talking about." Cayde explained, giving the two leaders both surprise and remorse, only imagining the true torture of immortality.

Lupe looked over to Hathor for any sort of signal. The feline queen nodded her head with a confident face while still frowning. Lupe gave Hathor the same look before turning toward Cayde. "We will become your allies and will agree to any terms you may have. Were it not for the Guardians, we would be decimated. I'm certain only Eggman would stand a small chance against a bigger force than this." Lupe said.

"We are indebted to you for saving this village and it's people. Most of them any way." Hathor said. "I only hope the terms you have won't be too extreme."

"No, only that you might accept some Guardians and make a small city. The city itself will be in open plains, or areas without trees, and will be used for any of our civies that can't stay in the main city. We will understand if you don't want that, that's something that we won't force on you." Cayde said.

"We will need to see if both the wolf and feline people will accept these terms. We will most definitely accept the Guardians and consider this city you want to build." Lupe said

"I wouldn't have said that any other way. Welcome aboard the 'army' of light." Cayde said before shaking hands with Lupe and bowing to Hathor. The negotiations between the Guardians and the two nations did go well. The Guardians told the two leaders to not tell the Kingdom of Acorn about their presence for now. After saying his goodbyes, Cayde went to the direction of the United Federation capital city, Station Square.

Cayde and his team were on their way over, just getting out of the general territory of the Wolf Pack and Felidae nations, they heard distant cries of help. They weren't close enough to Station Square for it to be from the city, and it sounded like only one person. When they heard it, they stopped using the boost to try and hear the screams again. They did hear the distant cries again and went to the direction that they think it came from.

"Come on, we need to find out where it came from. The sooner we find whoever is making that sound, the sooner and better we can help." Cayde said before the other Guardians responded with "Right!" The closer they got, the louder and more distinct the cries of help got. It became apparent that it was a female voice, one that Cayde didn't really know since he only read the comics and that he made up voices for the characters. Soon enough, they made it to a clearing and found out who was making that sound. The revelation did shock Cayde since he knew who it was, the only red vixen with black clothing and revealing some parts of her fur, Fiona Fox.

With her, the Destructix was badly injured from what appeared to be fallen and hive scouts. Fiona was hunched over her lover, Scourge the Hedgehog, tears streaming down her face. She looked up to Cayde, with his helmet on, and showed a surprised face that was shortly followed by a relieved face. "Thank Aurora. Please help us, everyone here is injured from those... things. We were about to head to the Felidae nation from the U.F. when these creatures came after us." Fiona said. This did prompt Cayde to fear that the hive were near U.F. territory and would most likely attack Station Square.

"It's alright, we're here to help. We're gonna look at you guys and see the extent of the wounds to either patch up now or head toward Station Square for more serious injuries, if it's okay with you." Cayde said in a sympathetic voice to try and show the vixen that he means no harm.

"Thank you, I had no idea what to do. I just lost hope for them until I heard your hover bikes in the distance. My only natural response was to cry for help at the top of my lungs." Fiona said, feeling more than relieved for someone to show up and help.

"Alright, Guardians. Check them for injuries and patch up what you can. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious with them, I heard that they can be tricky, no offense." Cayde said, having the last statement make Fiona giggle a bit. The Guardians cautiously and carefully looked over the six members for any bad injuries. After knowing that the mobians couldn't really fight back in terms of physical pain, the Guardians were then careful with their "patients". Every two Guardians took one member of the Destructix, since the Guardians had twice as many members then the mobian team.

The other five Guardians were 1 Titan, 2 Hunters, and 2 Warlocks. Between them and Onyx Team, they were left with Lightning Lynx, Sergeant Simian, Flying Frog, and Predator Hawk. Alex and Zardic got Scourge as their patient, leaving Fiona to Cayde and Sarifine, who was surprisingly the only one that was in good condition minus some big scratches and bruises. "I'm actually surprised you guys lived through an attack from these guys. Normally one of us would handle this many and only have some fairly big scratches on our armor, but the six of you did handle your own pretty well." Cayde said to Fiona.

"We are a tough group to kill, and that does go for the other me and his team." Scourge said, overhearing what Cayde said. "Unlike us, we know when to kill if somethings gonna kill us. Soft hearted Freedom Fighters wouldn't kill these things, even if they were left with no choice." Scourge continued, making himself sound more prideful with every statement. Just then, some of the bodies started to move, luckily it was only 7 thralls and 1 knight in some groggy state. "Looks like we missed a few. Damn, if only I could fight, then they would know not to mess with me." Scourge said with a sinister smile.

"Look after Fiona here, I'll take care of this." Cayde said before walking toward the nearest thrall. Before being arm width from the hive creature, he pulled out a hand cannon and shot the thing's head off. He then aimed at the next thrall and shot it in the head, rinsing and repeating until the knight was all that was left. When the gun clicked, he activated his Blade Dancer ability and charged toward the fully aware undead alien. In retaliation, the knight slashed at where Cayde would have been if he was still there. At the last second, the knight looked behind him to see Cayde make his swing before being killed by the electric knife. "Enjoy hell you abomination." Cayde said in a somewhat dark tone. The living corpse fell to the ground and slowly dissipated from the arc ability that the exo used on it.

Everyone from Destructix was in awe of the Hunter's speed and abilities. "Any serious injuries to report from our friends here?" Cayde said before seeing that Simian and Hawk didn't look like they needed serious treatment. When they got up, Simian held a rag on his arm and didn't move it. Hawk couldn't get up from what looked like a broken leg. "Alright, let's head to Station Square and get rested." Cayde said. The Guardians and the Destructix complied and got on the sparrows, the six mobians decided on which Guardian to ride with.

On the way to Station Square, they did see a massing of hive soldiers about a mile or so from the city. The Guardians didn't waste the time to count how many there were at the time being. They needed to prepare G.U.N., Destructix, and themselves for the coming battle. When they got to the hospital around late afternoon, they dropped of their mobian passengers to treat Simian and Hawk, and find Scourge, Frog, Lightning, and Fiona some place to sleep for the next few hours.

I'm gonna try to make this really quick since I don't want to waste some more time to pretty much have the same battle on a larger scale. In short, Cayde contacted the other vanguards to see if they had progress. Ikora went to Albion and other echidna capitals to get their support and Zavala went to the Dragon Kingdom for their support. They were also attacked by a species of darkness. Ikora got the cabal and Zavala handled the vex. These attacks seem to only be supporting the Guardians in their cause against the Darkness. The evil species might be trying to claim Mobius for their personal gain. Later the following evening. Cayde did tell the story of where the Guardians are from and everything else needed to be said, and also get more time to prepare the U.F. for the hive attack.

Lucky for them, they would be ready a few hours before the attack. The Destructix had no problem killing a few hive and readied themselves for the upcoming attack. Simian and Hawk were healed by Alex's and Zardic's ghosts, same as the rest since the Guardians need everyone they could get. Instead of a couple hundred enemies back at the village, this attack would have thousands of hive soldiers. When the hive force hit, it was still a challenge to protect Station Square from the undead army. G.U.N was able to gather about 50,000 immediate soldiers, and got another 20,000 soldiers later on. The hive were absolutely relentless on mainly the G.U.N., since the abominations knew they couldn't take out the Guardians permanently. Like the village, the city had the same idea and assigned two Guardians to each of the six segmented fronts along for the first line of defense and started at the farthest part of the city, specifically the suburban area after evacuation. Unlike the village, G.U.N. soldiers were needed at the front line for extra defense and the hive had about 3,000 of their own at the six fronts. The soldiers weapons weren't very effective since the hive were rotten and armor-like all over, but could still be useful.

The fight started in the last 2 evening hours and it lasted way into the next morning, tearing up the suburban area. The soldiers did lose about 1,200 people, which I think was better than the wolf and feline warriors. Don't quote me on that. The hive did gather at the central road, like the fallen, but no noticeable champions among them and they had about 400 "soldiers" and charged toward the city. The Guardians and the G.U.N. soldiers held the line as best they could and fight back the undead soldiers before they resorted to CQC. Luck was on their side once again since they had kept the hive from getting past the first line of buildings going into the main part of Station Square. Afterward, the president of the U.F. thanked the Guardians and the Destructix for protecting the city from the invaders. After some talks, the Guardians and the U.F. came to terms that were agreeable and easy to hold on both sides. Oh, and the vanguards did tell the nations to not tell the Kingdom of Acorn and explained why. It was strange to the allied nations, but they agreed none the less.

The Guardians then headed out towards New Mobotropolis with the Destructix as company for the trip there. The Destructix had chosen certain riders that they liked or were just comfortable with. Serven got Simian, Jack got Frog, Sarifine got Lightning, Zardic was paired with Hawk, Alex got a rather cranky Scourge, and Cayde got Fiona. The group of 18 did get along on the way there and even shared stories between them when they rested for a little while, mainly at night. Cayde was contacted by the Speaker to be told that the taken had attacked the tundra Freedom Fighters and some chapters of the Dark Egg Legion. The Speaker got several groups of Guardians, 3 at the most per group, to kill the attacking taken. Cayde had a feeling that the Kingdom of Acorn was going to get the blunt of the multi-alien invasion and told the current vanguards on the planet to group up at New Mobotropolis when they were done with what they were doing. The rest of the Guardians would try to meet Cayde in a few days, around the same time that they could interact with the Freedom Fighters in New Mobotropolis.

After several days, Cayde's Guardians and the Destructix had gotten close enough to see the nanite city from a far. "Man, that city is very pretty from here. Let's just hope we can make it in time to prepare them for the upcoming attack, if I'm correct." Cayde said. They were about to head out when they saw the Death Egg heading toward the city from above, shortly followed by a red flash of light from the city half a minute later. "What the hell did we just witness? Is this normal, because I don't remember seeing this in any sort of StH comic." Cayde stated in a confused tone, which Fiona simply replied with a "Nuh-uh".

"Cayde, I'm picking up a broadcast signal from that city. Do you wish to see what it is?" The exo's ghost replied with after a few moments of silence from the sudden flash.

"Sure, go ahead. Make sure we can't interact with them, it's not time yet." Cayde said. The ghost presented Cayde with a visual broadcast of both Sally and Eggman talking about the ultimatum. Of course, when Eggman finished his ultimatum talk, the group had feelings of anger, unbelievability, and confusion. "That is one cleaver bastard, I'll give him that. Still, that's one hell of an ultimatum he has, a little extreme if you ask me." Cayde said. Sally's half of the screen disconnected, but Eggman's didn't. In fact, the video setting was somehow turned on, possibly hacked from some of Eggman's techies. Cayde did say "Uh oh" after seeing that he was being watched. He wasn't wearing his helmet, so Eggman could see his face and what he is.

"Whoever, or whatever you are, I know that you listened in on the conversation between me and the mechanized princess. Of course, it's just a hunch, but judging by your face I'd say that you know about my ultimatum." Eggman said, sending a chill down the exo's mechanical spine.

"I might, what's it to you?" Cayde said, giving him a stern look.

"I will say that if you try to kill me, everyone at the jail will die. In order for me to do that, I created this small heartbeat monitor that's connected to both my heart and the poison injectors at the jail. I'm sure you can figure out how that works." Eggman said, baffling Cayde at first, but he was quick to figure out how it works.

"If your heart beat is stopped in any way, then the injectors will be activated and kill the citizens you have in the jail. Why the hell would you do this to those innocent people? They've done nothing to you that would harm you in anyway." Cayde said.

"It was the only way for Sonic and his Freedom Fighters to back down, as well as some of the other teams that fought me." Eggman said, making Cayde curious about the last statement. "If you excuse me, I need to talk to someone." At that instant, the ghost kept it open for them to see Sally's response to the ultimatum. The ghost got it so that Eggman couldn't see them listen in on this part of the broadcast.

After hearing Sally accepting the ultimatum, everyone headed toward the city and had to watch what happened afterward from a far. The time that was set to interact with Eggman had already past, but Cayde didn't care about it at all. However, he was still cautious about interacting with the Freedom Fighters and the incoming mobian teams with what was happening because the keeper said so. What was weird was that the other teams were not told about the Guardians, even though they were allowed to know about them. "Never defy the keeper of this universe." Cayde said to himself.

When they saw Sally and Sonic get teleported, they just waited agonizingly to interact with the distraught friends that were still in the city. When the couple got back, there was more waiting afoot. It was extremely boring for the group of mobians and Guardians. "All this waiting is just... AGONY!" Fiona said, letting every one know what she thought. "When can we interact with them!?"

"They expect to die within one hour and 45 minutes. We can interact with everyone, except Sonic and Sally, at the one hour mark, and we can interact with the couple at the hour and 15 minute mark. These are very strict rules from the keeper, but let's not try to ignore it." Cayde said, who was equally bored and kept it more subtle. "Alright, me and Team Onyx will follow Sonic and Sally while everyone else follow the other guys. If my hunch is correct, and I know it is, then the royal couple will want some alone time and spend their last moments together. Don't ask how far they would take it, we all hopefully know the answer to that. Are my orders clear?" Cayde stated, said, and asked.

Everyone said "crystal" and headed toward the city and follow the two target groups across the city. Thankfully, Nicole was occupied by her group of friends to notice the uninvited group of people in the city that were sneaking about from a far. Even if she wasn't occupied, the ghosts did jam their presence just in case. When the mixed Guardian/mobian group then split due to the fact that the obvious meeting site was being deconstructed. Cayde and Team Onyx was heading to the Lake of Rings when seeing Sonic take Sally to that direction, while the rest of the joint group went to the deconstructing castle for... everyone else in the city. I'm not clever.

Cayde and his team did follow the royal couple to the Lake of Rings and waited. They did wait beyond the interaction time, but waited for the best time to butt in and tell them what they need to know. This is the point where Sonic and Sally started their make out and Cayde has a suspicion that it's time to butt in. "I'll call you guys when I feel it's necessary for you to come in. Don't look hostile when you guys are in their view, okay?" Cayde said quietly just in case the couple could hear them. The Guardians response were some thumbs up. Cayde then walked to the couple while noticing that they were getting kinky. "Whoa, whoa, careful now, there could be kids watching from a far." Cayde said. We already know the rest of the conversation.

WOOOOHH! End of Chapter 3. Now, I ask that you please don't scold me on some parts that might confuse you. This was a little rushed, especially the battles, but I will take my time on later chapters and they will go beyond the four thousand whatever mark to like the six or seven thousands as the new limit. Everything's not explained entirely because of the rush, so sorry on that. Some of the post Super Genesis Wave characters will appear in this story. To be clear, Mighty and Ray are back in the Chaotix, if the comics didn't establish that, and Matilda will not be in the Chaotix. If there is some stuff I missed, then please tell me, I'm not near any comic store that I know of that sells the StH comics. I really just look at the wiki for that info. That's all for now, in the mean time, we will meet again in Chapter 4.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello there, fellow readers. This is the chapter that will determine the limits of the Freedom Fighters and the Guardians against the forces of Darkness. The first real fight that the Freedom Fighters will have where they must kill the dark species or die. Their enemy will go from a crazy native overlander tyrant, to an all powerful undead alien king. You know, this will also be the first battle that I will describe for the most part. Anyways, enjoy the 4th chapter of this story. This might be a long one as well, so prepare yourself. By the way, if my chapters seem to change from the previous ones, I'm still getting the hang of a unique writing style for this story. Also, I feel like Eggman should have both Eggman and Robotnik. They both fit him perfectly. Enjoy!

 **Chapter 4: The Battle of New Mobotropolis**

"So, this is the realm that we will inhabit for the rest of our lives. It will be no different from our own. I will conquer everything and destroy those who oppose me in this universe. It will all be mine, soon enough." Oryx said. His dreadnought was in the same place that it was in his universe, in Saturn's ring with a hole like his old place. One of the generals had entered his chamber where he resided, looking at his new place while pondering his plan after the next battle.

"We are prepared to make our move on this 'New Mobotropolis'. Every race has accepted using 10% of their forces. Do you think that we will win this once and for all." The hive general said, who looked like a bigger knight with some big battle scars and some Guardians armor for showing off how many he killed.

"No. With the Guardians having the three vanguards and the inhabitants of 'Mobius' having some of their best fighters in that one place, they will win with a few scratches and little to no casualties." Oryx said. He then turned to his general and told faced him. "We must prepare after the next battle and keep the Guardians away from our ship. We can't have them here again and also have them keep coming on a regular basis." The Taken king said.

"And if we do win this battle?" The oversized knight asked.

"Then we will destroy the Traveler and vanquish any remnants of Light that survive the coming slaughter if we are victorious. No matter the outcome, I will take them all." Oryx said, turning toward the empty void from where he stood.

"As you say, my king." The knight said before leaving Oryx's chamber.

"Mark my words. I will take everything in this universe, then... beyond." The Taken King vowed.

Meanwhile, Cayde, Sonic, and Sally just looked at each other. Cayde waits for a response from the two, but they seem to still be shocked from seeing the exo for the first time.

"Uh... is anyone home in there. You guys are starting to creep me out here." Cayde finally said, breaking the awkward silence. The couple seemed to snap back from reality when the exo talked.

"Sorry, but- what are you?" Sally finally asked.

"The answer to that is tied to a really long story and I'd like to tell it with everyone at once." Cayde said.

"Why not tell us what you are anyway? Is it really that important for some story you need to tell us?" Sonic asked.

"That's a good point. When and where exos were created will be revealed in the story that I'll tell you later, along with the others in the city. To summarize, exos started off as semi-sapient humanoid weapons during the golden age. After the collapse, they were then resurrected by the ghosts and the Traveler to be used as Guardians." Cayde said. After the explanation of exos, a sneeze was heard behind Cayde, which made him, Sonic, and Sally jump from how loud it was.

"What the hell!? Who's there!?" Sally said before activating her ring blades and Sonic getting ready to fight. Cayde had sighed and muttered something along the lines of "goddammit" while putting a hand over his face.

"Okay, come on out guys. You obviously blew your cover just from that." Cayde said before using his hands as obvious signs of aggravation. Two Guardians then stepped out of the tree line and came into view of the two mobians. "Alright, where's Riktor?" Cayde asked with a clear aggravated tone.

"Don't get your wires in a bunch. He's heading toward the center of this 'city' to meet up with the others." Serven said, which did give the mobian couple a bad feeling about these guys.

"Fine, whatever. Let's just head there now and tell them where we're from and why we're here, okay?" Cayde said with a very annoyed tone. The two Guardians nodded and headed toward the big group of people. Sally was about to say something when suddenly, "Just don't bother, okay? I had this figured out, it didn't go well, and all I just want to do is explain to you guys what's going on. Let's just go so I can tell everyone of my story." Cayde said.

"Okay. Let's head to the center of the city." Sally said.

With a simulated sigh, Cayde said in a more calm voice, "Yeah, let's go. Just so you two know, we mean no harm for you or the other native teams here."

"Duly noted. Now let's go before Eggman destroys the city." Sally said with a somewhat sad tone for the last statement.

"If you think so. Serven, Jack, let's go." Cayde said as they ran toward the center of New Mobotropolis. Around the same time that Cayde had engaged with Sonic and Sally at the Lake of Rings, the big mobian group had started various conversations with each other.

"What do you think Sonic and Sally are doing over there?" Amy asked while looking in the direction of the Lake of Rings.

"Well, if you were coupled with Sonic and he wanted to spend time with you during your last moments, what you do?" Tails said, knowing somewhat the answer to his question.

"Oh... right. Some 'private' things, I guess." Amy said with a sigh at the end. "Well, at least they'll be happy, and that's what matters most during these times." Amy said, accepting the fact that the couple are enjoying their last moments together.

"Eh, I'd rather hang out with this gang of ours than just be alone with someone." Tails said.

"Even if that person was me." A female voice said. Tails instantly knew who it was from the general taunting tone. Fiona and the other members of the Destructix emerged from the shadows of some nearby buildings, which gave the big group a somewhat nauseating feeling from their presence.

"What do you want, Fiona?" Tails said, giving her a hostile feeling.

"Nothing but the company of a two tailed fox I know. Besides I have some more friends here who also want to meet you." Fiona said before whistling for some potential figures to come closer. The Guardians had also emerged from the shadows and walked in a calm pace.

"Unlike me and my team, they have a special story to tell all of you when Sal, the blue fool, and a rather nice but skillful guy comes here." Scourge said.

"Before anyone asks, we mean you no harm toward you and any of your friends. We wish to talk about negotiations and the perks for the negotiations. We only ask that we wait for Sonic the Hedgehog, Sally Acorn, and Cayde-6 and his team to come back." Alex said.

The big mobian group was very suspicious of the Guardian's statement. Before anyone could speak, someone had also appeared from what looked like thin air. The Speaker had been teleported from the main ship to the ground with some experimental technology they were working on since the King's Fall mission and more so after it's failure. The mobians as a whole were confused at the new figure, but the Guardians were in awe of who they were seeing.

"I take it that you have explained to them why we mean no harm to their people." The Speaker said.

"Not yet, we were waiting for Cayde and his group to arrive. It's still a surprise to see you here, Speaker." Alex said in an awed tone.

"So, this is the guy you were talking about? 'The Speaker, the one who can talk for the Traveler and hear what it says'. Doesn't seem that-" Fiona was interrupted from Cayde calling out to them, who just arrived.

"Sorry we're late guys, we had some complications with our... our... When did the Speaker show up?" Cayde said, confused by his presence.

"Just now. I would advise you that we have a big threat looming over our heads. Do you think you can stall it for a few moments, vanguard." The Speaker said in a very calm tone.

"Oh! Right! Let's see what I can do from here." Cayde said before pulling out the Icebreaker sniper rifle from his back. Cayde scanned the many rims of the firing output of the Death Egg. "Bingo, let's see what happens if I do this." The exo said before pulling the trigger. A small explosion was seen from the middle rim followed by some sort of covering that engulfed the firing output. Everyone, including Cayde was surprised from this weird covering for the output, but it did buy the Guardians some time to start telling their story.

Suddenly, Eggman's face had popped out of the tails doll that was close by. "What in the hell did you guys just- what are you doing here!?" Eggman asked.

"Just sabotaging your weapon for a few moments." Cayde said with an uppity tone.

"I told you to stay out of this! Are you too stubborn to listen or something!?" Eggman said, the fury obviously showing in his voice and on his face.

"Please, don't start that. You know what you're doing is very much wrong and all I want is to postpone it. Besides, it can't be that long before you repair it." Cayde said.

Robotnik looked at a monitor and just stared at it for a little while. He looked back at the screen and said, "You get 45 minutes, tops. Then I'll fire the weapon."

"Okay, see ya." Cayde said before turning to the big mobian group. They were told by the Guardians that Robotnik contacted them while listening in on the ultimatum transmission. "Alright, looks like we have some time to explain to you why we're here and where we're from. To start off, our story begins when the humans first stepped on mars, the fourth planet from the sun." Cayde told them where they were from and how they got to this universe. He wasn't in a hurry to tell them, and it made the mobian group very worried that he won't finish.

Within the Death Egg, Zavala and his group of titans were heading towards the control room, 12 to be exact. Luckily for them, they had a good ten minutes to get there. They got the blueprints for the Death Egg and was on the right track. "Alright, the control room is on the other side of that door." Zavala said, pointing to a big, double door entrance that was on their right. "We go in their, weapons ready. All we need to do is scare this 'Robotnik' character into submission. Is everyone ready?" Zavala said before everyone said "Yes, sir". Zavala then got next to the doors and heard both Snively and Eggman discuss the situation with the broken part and Cayde telling his story to the mobian group.

The awoken vanguard then got his ghost to open the door on his mark. When the titan said go, the door opened immediately and caught everyone in the control room off guard. The titans aimed their auto rifles at any potential threat. Zavala had gotten to the overweight scientist and pointed his gun at him the whole time. "If anyone in here does any sudden movements, then they will be shot! Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik, stand down and surrender or you will be shot." Zavala commanded. The awoken had his helmet on so that Robotnik would think he is human.

A ghost from a random titan was transmitting what was going on in the Death Egg back to the New Mobotropolis group. Cayde was talking about the golden age when his ghost activated his end of the transmission. The mobians and some Guardians couldn't believe what Zavala was saying. "That's one way to scare him. Let's see if he knows about that heartbeat monitor 'fatso' has." Cayde said. The Freedom Fighters couldn't believe what was going on. They were terrified that their friends and family were about to die from Zavala killing the tyrant.

"Really, do you honestly believe you can kill me without consequence? This heartbeat monitor will kill everyone at my northern base if you kill me." Eggman said with a serious expression on his face. Zavala's ghost then looked at it while it seemed to tamper with it as well from a weird ray like scanner. This scared the hell out of the Freedom Fighters and worried some Guardians. "What is that thing doing?" Eggman said with a confused look and tone.

"Done. The heartbeat monitor has been disconnected from the poison injectors, which will also be deactivated." Zavala's ghost said. A transmission was picked up from the northern base that Eggman's heartbeat monitor wasn't connected to the poison injectors. "Soon enough, the injectors will disconnect from their hosts and be rendered useless." The ghost said.

"Y-you... got around... my ultimatum!?" Eggman said before being grabbed from the collar of his shirt by Zavala. The vanguard dropped his rifle and took off his helmet before pointing a pistol at Robotnik's head. The obese tyrant was absolutely terrified and shocked at this point. The Freedom Fighters were shocked from what just happened as well.

"Look in my eyes and listen. You will stand down, give us this ship, and use the weapon at either the incoming enemies that are going to be here in an estimated 2 hours or on future enemies. If you do not comply, I will end your life right here." Zavala said with a burning rage in his eyes. By now the injectors have fallen to the ground in the northern base.

"I-I can't, this is m-my station. Y-you wouldn't kill me, r-right? You need m-me for some purpose if I h-have a c-choice to comply." Robotnik said in a cowering voice.

"Uncle, that seems to be a little foolish of you, right!?" Snively said.

"He's right, sir. Don't provoke him any more than you have already." Lien-Da said.

"QUIET! Let me handle this!" Eggman snapped from their opinions.

"I'm going to count to five. If you don't comply, I will shoot you." Zavala said. Eggman tried his best to stand his ground.

"Here we go." Cayde said.

"Five."

"Four!"

"Three!" Zavala then shot next to Robotnik to prove his point.

"TWO!"

"Alright, alright! I'll comply, I'll comply!" Eggman said, giving in to the threat. Zavala then put the pistol in his holster and ended the transmission.

"Guardians, stand down. Dr. Robotnik, we will keep the weapon active until our enemies arrive at our location. The information of who we are and where we're from will be transmitted to any servers you have or any other way that would be easy for you to obtain the information." Zavala said. Eggman was a little bit in shock from the intensity of the threat. "Are you going to be okay?" The awoken said sounding a little worried.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just- a lot of things happened so suddenly. I'm sure you understand." Eggman said in a slight shocked voice. He was also breathing heavily to try and calm himself down.

"It was the only way for you to stand down. Some things you just have to take it to a more intense level." Zavala said. "I'm sure we will get along fine. For now, we need to prepare the upcoming attack if our theory holds." He finished.

"Well, what are we doing just standing around. We have a plan to put together." Eggman said, sounding more enthusiastic. Commander Zavala and Dr. Robotnik then went and planned what to do and how to defend the city.

"Wow, that was intense. I actually thought Zavala was gonna kill Eggman. You know, a few months ago, that would be an experience I would never have imagined. So, how's everyone doing?" Cayde said. Everyone, except the Guardians, had eyes and mouths wide open. They couldn't believe what happened. "I'm guessing you guys are trying to comprehend what just happened. We have a story to finish, so gather around children."

"Are you serious right now!?" Sally exclaimed with disbelief and anger with what just happened.

"What?" Cayde said in a "what did I do wrong?" tone.

"Someone you know just made Eggman submit out of pure fear and nearly kills the guy, but then decided he needs to live because we need him for some battle! And out of everything you just said, we need to finish some story!? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND!?" Sally exclaimed with faint echoes in the background.

"I can finish this story in, like, twenty to thirty minutes. I'm not sure when they'll arrive, but it's most likely within an hour. We can see their movements from the sky and don't seem to be gathering yet. We have a way to warn everyone and have a plan to defend this place. We have the situation under control." Cayde said in a slight sympathetic voice.

With an aggravated sigh Sally just said, "Fine." With that everyone just gathered around Cayde as he continued his story. He went on about the glories of the golden age and the miracles it brought with it. He even pulled out some StH comics to show where it went after the Traveler arrived. He kept going through the collapse and the invasion to Alex's arrival, who was called the new Guardian. Everyone just kept listening to him while Sally was waiting for a sudden attack on New Mobotropolis. Sonic didn't seem as worried as his significant other, but he was worried. Cayde then got to the death of Crota and continued to the failed King's Fall mission. He said that the rest of his story would sound like something he would make up.

Nonetheless, he continued his story and finished it with their arrival. Everyone just stared at him, since it sounded like a mix of a fairy tale and what the Freedom Fighters went through when escaping their Robotnik's Robotropolis. "Does anyone have questions about my story?" Cayde asked before Sally just stood up from a rock Nicole created for her to sit on.

"So, you come from a time that was in the old times of 'Earth', but instead of the Xorda showing up, this 'Traveler' terraformed both Venus and Mars, and then followed up by it giving humans a golden age of technology and other such things. But the Darkness attacked, causing 'the collapse' that had also killed the Traveler, essentially, and created the ghosts to bring people back to life and make them Guardians. Then, after a long while of gaining a great deal of victories, this 'Oryx' character accidentally destroyed your home universe because he wanted to kill all of the Guardians and the people they protect. And THEN, you found our universe and was told what is the appropriate time to meet all of us. Did I pretty much summarize the whole thing?" Sally said.

"I believe you did." A female voice said. Cayde actually screamed a bit from Ikora saying that, having no idea she was there.

"Dammit, Ikora. Don't do that!" Cayde said before noticing Sally snickering, trying not to laugh out loud. "Was it really that funny?" He said with a "really?" look.

Sally tried her best to stop laughing and talk, but just went back to laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. It's just that-" She tried to say but laughed in mid-sentence. "It's just that she was behind you for a while and I thought you knew she was there. That and you freaking out a little from her." She finished before going into another laughing fit.

"Well, I sure am glad my fear was able to give you laughter and joy." Cayde said in a sarcastic tone. At this point, everyone had got a good laugh from Cayde's shock and finally calmed down a bit. Sally just tried to breath to calm herself down.

"Okay, I'm really sorry that I laughed from you being scared like that." She went and cleared her throat before continuing. "But we need to worry about the upcoming battle when it hits. What are we going to do when we get attacked?" Sally asked.

"Well, we have to put up a defensive perimeter around the border of the city and shoot anything that wants to kill us. Plain, simple, and straight to the point." Cayde said with a somewhat confident voice. Sally just looked at him quizzically from his plan.

'Is he talking about killing them? I know they're bad, but still they at least deserve a chance to live.' Sally thought.

As though reading her mind, the Speaker then said, "They must be slain for their crimes against the light. The fallen are given a choice to return to the Traveler's light or go with the awoken after this battle. Those who wish to stay in the dark will be branded as an enemy to the Traveler." The Speaker said. This statement made her question their motives, but knew that if they didn't fight, everyone they knew will be in greater danger compared to Eggman's ultimatum.

"Alright. If that's what's gonna keep our friends and family safe again, then we might as well go with it. Besides Sal, he did say they're bad enough to commit genocide." Sonic said, making Sally look back at him with a look of disbelief from her lover. "What do you think, Sally?" He asked. She overheard some of the other mobians talking about it, mostly agreeing with it. For now.

Sally then thought about it and gave Cayde, Ikora, and the Speaker a fair answer. "You guys do have a fair point of killing these things. But I think that we should go through this battle and talk about our interaction with any future events." Sally said. Although the Guardians didn't like the last part of her statement, they agreed and went on to discuss the defense plans. After some time had passed, the "native group" part of the plan was already done and Sally, along with Elias, decided to hear the rest of it when the vanguards were done with it.

All the while, the other Guardians and "natives" were conversing about events from their pasts and some general topics that seemed appropriate at the time. Sally went and tried to find her lover only to see him holding his left ear, which did seem weird to her. "Sonic, why are you-" She then found out why from the blood and the half circle hole at the edge of his ear. "What happened!?" Sally asked with a surprised tone in it.

"It was Scourge, not any of the Guardians." Sonic said, replacing the dirty piece of gauze with a clean one.

Sally sighed and just said, "Okay, what happened that made him shoot you and how? I didn't see him with a gun."

"Well, what happened was," Sonic said, describing the event a few moments ago.

" _So, how did you run with this crowd?" Sonic asked Scourge._

" _Hmph, wouldn't you like to know?" Scourge said with a snotty tone while looking back._

" _Come on, I have to at least entertain myself 'till Sal comes back." Sonic said before noticing Scourge messing with something. "What are messing with, anyway?" Scourge then turned around with a strange looking auto rifle in his hands._

" _This little beauty is called the Red Death. Possibly my favorite inanimate object I have ever had." Scourge said._

For those who don't know what the Red Death is, just look it up. I can't really describe it without sounding like an idiot.

" _I feel like_ _ **you**_ _named it for some weird reasons." Sonic said._

" _The Guardians already named it 'Red Death'."_

" _... I've lost all faith in the Guardians. That is one of the most obvious names I have ever heard for a gun."_

" _I'm sure that name would sound better on me." Fiona said as she walked to the to Sonics._

" _I'm sure that your nickname would be Bad Juju, instead." Sonic said._

" _Careful with what you say, blue." Scourge said with a threatening sounding tone._

" _Oh? And what are you going to do if I'm not 'careful'?" Sonic said before Scourge fiddled with his new rifle. Sonic moved away with a victorious look on his face before feeling a stinging pain on his left ear. "What the HELL was that!?" Sonic exclaimed in a startled tone while turning around. He saw Scourge holding his rifle in a firing stance that had some smoke coming out of the barrel._

" _I did try to warn you, but you seemed too arrogant about how right you thought you were." Scourge said with a know-it-all tone. I think he went and suppressed that one shot since no one else heard it._

" _YOU SHOT ME!?" Sonic asked loudly._

" _You didn't listen to me."_

" _YOU SHOT ME!"_

" _He did warn you." Fiona said._

" _Oh, screw both of you!" Sonic said before storming off to Nicole to make some gauze for his injury._

"And that's pretty much how it happened." Sonic said while Sally had her palm over her face.

"Well, that is one idiotic reason to shoot someone. If they keep acting like this, we are not surviving this fight." Sally said.

"Calm down, it was just an ear that I hit. It could have been worse." Scourge said while holding his gun over his shoulder.

"Oh boy, doesn't that make me feel better." Sonic said statistically.

"Just be lucky I didn't hit anything vital." Scourge said. He then heard a loud noise and felt the same pain Sonic just felt. He looked over at Sally to see her with a pistol that had smoke coming out of it.

"The hell is going on here!?" Cayde said when he got to the three mobians.

"Where do I start?" Sally asked.

"Let's say why they both have the same injury."

"Well, Sonic went and made fun of Fiona, which led to Scourge shooting his ear. Then I went and gave him the same injury for good measure." Sally said, oddly out of character. Before Fiona could do anything rash to Sally, Cayde got everyone's attention.

"Alright, new rule everyone. No one discharges a weapon from now to when we set up some shooting ranges. Even then, no one SHOOTS anyone." Cayde said, which did make Fiona give Sally a nasty glare. "That rule goes especially to the two of you. We understood?"

"Affirmative." Sally said.

Fiona just looked at Sally and said, "Fine." With an aggravated tone.

"Next time Sally, try not to hurt anyone else. Even if it's someone else's boyfriend." Cayde said, which made her nod. He figured that this weird act from the leader of the Freedom Fighters is some sort of nervous action, some excuse to fire a gun without feeling bad for the guy on the other end. After heading back and completing most of the plan, Cayde went to find Sally and have a talk with her.

It didn't take long to find her, as she was helping with the construction of a basic shooting range. Even though he was convinced that Sal was in a nervous state, he still needed more evidence to confirm his suspicion. It was actually a few seconds after she was done when she just started to examine her pistol and then just stared at it. She felt as though she was carrying some sort of WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) in the palm of her hands.

"Don't worry, it only has fifteen bullets in it, far from putting your people into near extinction." Cayde said, jokingly. Sally just chuckled before going back to her depressed look. "C'mon Sally. Don't look like from just a pistol."

"I'm just nervous about killing a living being. I've never done it before and... I just feel like it would make things worse than make things better." Sally said.

"It's something that has to be done. There's no way around it, no way to really feel good about it, and no reward from it. When you learn to demonize your enemy completely or truly understand there motives, then they could be your worst enemies. We may have fallen on our side, but we still need to some kill them that aren't on our side." Cayde said.

"It's just... I don't want to be responsible to kill something with a soul and know that it died doing the wrong thing."

"That's what happens in war. It's not easy, but it's what we have to do it."

"How do you surpass the whole 'living being' thing anyway?"

"Here's how I do it. I just look down the barrel of a gun, look at who ever I'm about to shoot, and think... 'that is one ugly bastard', then I fire." Cayde said, making Sally giggle for a bit.

"Or think of someone I hate?" Sally asked jokingly.

"That might also work. And... speak of the devil, and he may appear." Cayde said looking toward the sky. Sally and some of the other that weren't busy looked in the sky to see some shuttles from the Death Egg. The one in front of Sally and the exo vanguard landed and opened up the door to reveal both Zavala and Robotnik talking about the plan and just walked out. Robotnik looked in front of him to see where he was going when he noticed all the mobians that were once his prisoners on the execution block with the nanite city.

"I know you have learned to hate him, but we do need his weapons and battle bots to fight off the incoming threats. For now, treat him like he's a close ally and an important figure to the war." Zavala said. Robotnik just gave a nervous laugh as he headed to the tent that was set up for a command center. The "natives" just stared at the old man as he passed by and disappeared into the tent.

"Didn't think we'd see him so soon." Tails said.

"You said it." Sonic said.

"The no shooting rule especially applies to the vanguards and Eggman." Cayde said before everyone sighed. After the vanguards and Robotnik entered the tent to finish the plan, everyone just prepared for the upcoming battle. The "native" team was allowed to talk to their friends and family that had been imprisoned at Eggman's northern base that had been occupied by both Eggman's forces and some Guardians. They all just talked and some had cried just to see their loved ones. This moment was very different then the apparent goodbye, as in everyone talked about seeing them after the battle. This did give hope to the vanguards listening in and the Freedom Fighters.

It was mid-day, a half hour before the dark forces had started the battle. Everyone was training at the makeshift shooting range that was using dummies and some live targets. The live targets were some of the most feral and the most dark aliens that was captured by the awoken in the Prison of Elders. They were to simulate the brutality of the enemy forces when they hit the city.

The mobians that weren't used to killing, but needed to learn how to absolutely demonize these creatures. Well, just to try to hate them enough to want to kill them. It was hard to do it, especially the Freedom Fighters. Tails, being the only young member there, was given a remote controlled humanoid robot for him to use. Everyone else was actually going to be used for support roles. The Guardians didn't see a big enough fighting force from the enemy to have the mobians on the front line.

All the while, some of the mobians were actually happy to be on the support role. It would be a short lived "happiness" when the awoken vanguard came out of the tent for an update on the dark forces. "We have a very important update on our situation. We will need all hands on the front lines if are going to survive this attack. We also suspect that the Taken will appear when the other aliens are 'used up'." Zavala's update did sadden the Freedom Fighters, along with the secret ones, and Julie-Su, confuse the rest of the members of Chaotix and Team Dark, but did put the Destructix on edge. No one was ecstatic to hear that they were going to fight the Taken, not even the Destructix.

"The Taken. Sounds silly, but very much appropriate for their... state. It sounds horrible to be one of them." Sally said to herself. She couldn't have been more right. The Taken were literally demonic and twisted forms of the four main dark aliens against their wills. What did scare her the most was that the hive 'god', Oryx, had called himself the Taken King. "How much worse could this get?" She asked herself.

"Everyone, we have ten minutes before the enemy gets here. The shield won't last long against the heavy artillery, expect it to go down very shortly when it's up. Let's lock n' load people!" Cayde said, which made Sally regret her question. The mobians were split up so that the four sectors were defended evenly. A chart was posted on the outside wall of the tent which read:

North/Vex sector: Zavala and his Guardians, Sonic, Scourge, Shadow, Silver, Bark, Shard, Antoine, and Omega.

West/Fallen sector: Cayde and his Guardians, Rouge, Amy, Lyco, Leeta, Sally, Fiona, Julie-Su, and Bunnie.

East/Cabal sector: Lord Shaxx with the Speaker's Guardians, Mighty, Nack, Vector, Espio, Knuckles, Elias, Bean, and Metal Sonic.

South/Hive sector: Ikora and her Guardians, Rotor, Heavy, Bomb, Tails(his robot), Simian, Frog, Lightning, and Hawk.

'Why am I not surprised that the Hooligans would be here? End of the world probably has them desperate.' Sally thought. The Hooligans were called in and were even bribed to help if the "alien invasion" excuse wasn't enough.

Sally then went to the west part of the city and met up with her teammates. They were told that the mobians can use their own abilities or equipment given to them by the Guardians. Either way, they did need to kill their enemies if everyone is to survive. After the five minute mark, everyone was really anxious for the enemy to get here, but were ready to face them. It would be a matter of time before they become either heroes or martyrs. Before the ten minute mark hit, everyone could see the enemy charging at them. Thousands of aliens were the only thing covering the horizon. This battle would be a long one.

When they hit, the shield of the city was bombarded by explosives from spider tanks and heavy artillery. The shield itself would only last a mere 20 minutes, but the heavy artillery would go back to their respected owners and focus on taking their territory back from each other. Mobians and Guardians alike were just waiting for the shield to go down and start the slaughter that was inevitable to ensue. The Guardians were becoming impatient while some of the mobians were just hoping that the enemy would stop before the shield went down.

After a while, the shield gave out and some hard cover was being materialized for everyone to use. The mobians were the first ones to get to cover since they didn't have any combat armor or shields to protect them. The fallen were using skirmish tactics to try and flank the defenders. The hive were sending in thralls and ogres to rush their enemy while the acolytes and knights were suppressing the defenders, trying to overwhelm them. The vex would shoot in one area then teleport to the next so that the defenders would be confused and focus in the wrong area. The cabal would just keep shooting and use sheer power to try and make their enemies submit to their brute force. Either way, it would be a long time before any of the defensive line would start to crumble.

The west sector of the city was pretty tight in terms of defenses. The fallen's skirmish tactic wasn't very efficient, but it did make the defenders question the sudden pauses between attacks for the first few times. The south sector wasn't doing so well because of the thralls and ogres rushing them while the acolytes and knights suppressed them in cover. The ogres weren't as strong and as tall as they usually were, like there were some "pygmy ogres".

The north sector was actually an utterly confused exchange of bullets than an actual battle. One moment the defenders were being shot at while in cover, the next they aim at thin air before being bombarded by more red lasers. The east sector was a hellish war zone. The cabal were just charging either to their death or right to a defender and hit them to incapacitate them for an easy kill, still no dice for the cabal. These defenders were at the mercy of the cabal's brute force and heavy hitting, but still had a solid defense that was holding.

4 hours later, late afternoon...

'This battle must be the worst one that I've ever fought.' Sally fought. 'First these 'fallen' things were going in small groups at a time, now they're just trying to flank us and-' A fallen dreg had suddenly landed next Sally, looking like it was disoriented from the fall. This did give Sally plenty of time to shoot at it but not hit it. The dreg was startled a bit before it aimed at the chipmunk with it's own weapon. Sally then got a hit on the dreg and kept firing until it stopped moving. After a moment of regret, Sally said, "I need to remember that these are the things that will kill us..."

"If we don't kill them first." Cayde said.

"Yeah."

"I think it's easier because they're aliens and brutal killers."

"Sure, but it's harder for me since I'm not fond of killing."

"True." Cayde said. Suddenly a Reaver Captain showed up and tried to kill the vanguard and the mobian. Fortunately, Cayde had summoned his golden gun to kill it and two vandals behind it. "We need to push forward. Try to give the fallen little room to outmaneuver us!" He said in his helmet comm. Immediately, they both headed toward the oncoming alien army. Their defensive line was pushed back about 40 feet from the original defensive line. "Push these bastards back!" Cayde exclaimed.

"Easier said than done." Sally muttered.

"Got you now." Sonic said while behind cover. He looked around his corner and saw nothing but air. "COME ON!" He yelled. The vex seemed to be giving the north defenders some trouble since they kept teleporting. Every last one of the mobian defenders (except Shard and Omega) were having trouble with the teleporting vexes. "Damn monsters." Sonic sweared.

"I think you should focus on shooting them rather than hiding from them. We need to try and push them back before they advance any further." Zavala said.

"Easier said than done. If they would stop teleporting so much then we might have a chance to stop them from advancing." Sonic said in a somewhat agitated voice. A vex then teleported near the two talking before Zavala tried to shoot it, failing to do so since it teleported a few feet to the left of the two defenders. Sonic shot at it and hit the middle part, killing it instantly. "YEAH! GOT ONE!...Oh, right."

"They deserve to die after terraforming mercury into a mechanical planet and sending Guardians to other parts of time and space. Don't give them remorse or forgiveness." Zavala said with some anger in his voice.

"Right… well, good luck with that." Sonic said, concerned with angering him. After that, Zavala then used his fists of havoc to take out a group of vex hobgoblins.

"Sweet merciful Aurora!" Knuckles exclaimed. The cabal didn't hold anything back when they started their attack. Explosions, gunfire, even the occasional shockwave was used as soon as it was ready. Some of the mobians in this sector were not the strongest, but they were still useful for their nimbleness. Some legionaries ran toward Knuckles only to be gunned down my both him and Lord Shaxx.

"Hold the line, defenders! Stand your ground and hold back the enemy! We will prevail and live to tell the tale! MOVE FORWARD!" Lord Shaxx exclaimed with pride and glory in his voice. "Come on! We need to move up and force them back." Shaxx said to Knuckles, who was letting him be this way since he just wants to hit the enemy back.

"Ha! Got another one!" Tails said while killing some more thralls running to their deaths. Tails did find more joy in killing hive since they were undead. 'I know that I should feel bad for these things, but I don't think I can since they look like decayed husks.' Tails then saw some defenders having trouble killing an ogre and decided to help out. After it died, he then sent his bot to go kill some of the acolytes giving the defenders suppression fire.

"At least you're having fun from a safe distance." Ikora said to the battle bot, which made Tails laugh a little through the mic. "A shame that your bot can't do this." After saying that, the human vanguard then used her nova bomb to take out some knights.

"Woah." Tails said in awe.

"Hmph. Come on, we got more hive to kill. Let's go." Ikora said before she and Tails' bot ran toward the oncoming wave of hive.

"Why are there so many of these things!?" Fiona asked while fighting the fallen.

"Don't know, but Ah think we're gettin' the upper hand here." Bunnie said, yelling over the gunfire and explosions.

"I think it could be a lot worse than it is now." Sally said over the radio.

"Ow! I think my nail broke through the nail bed!" Amy said, making everyone express their imaginative feeling of it.

"I think we have it in the bag!" Yelled Jack before an explosion took him out. "Nevermind." He said on the radio. Everyone had a good laugh from his shenanigans and continued with the defensive tactics.

"I think these 'vex' are getting a bit reckless." Sonic said with confidence in his voice.

"About time." Shadow said.

"Hell yeah!" Scourge exclaimed.

"How many of these things are there!?" Silver asked.

"Another four hundred or so left." Zavala said.

"Oh boy, another few hundred of these robot things." Shard said sarcastically.

"More fun for me." Omega said excitedly. He then mowed down some more vex before the others joined him.

"Take that you over-grown space turtles!" Knuckles exclaimed in excitement for killing three cabal in a row.

"Heh. Got four in a row just now! Try to beat that!" Mighty said before seven shots were heard on the comms.

"Got seven. Beat that, sucker." Nack said.

"Show off!" Vector said.

"Damn. Nearly beat it, too." Espio said.

"Can we at least try to focus here?" Elias said.

"The one to get the most kills will get a pass on ten criminal activities." Lord Shaxx said with some of the defenders to increase the amount of bullets being fired, but some of them were skeptical of the titan's offer.

"This is now starting to become more intense." Tails said, controlling his robot to keep mowing down thralls.

"Take this your undead freaks!" Simian said before throwing a grenade into a crowd of hive.

"Come on, we almost have them on the run." Rotor said with some excitement.

"The hive will keep coming until we are dead or until they are dead." Ikora said

"So much for having them on the run." Hawk said.

"Kill them all!" Frog said before continuing his rampage of hive deaths.

"For Mobius!" Lightning said on an open channel.

"FOR MOBIUS!" Everyone else said with him.

After a few more hours of fighting, the alien invasion force had been exterminated. The overall battle nearly lasted to midnight. Everyone was tired and wanted to go to bed, but the dark forces wouldn't let them.

"Is it finally over?" Sally asked, falling to her knees and trying not to fall asleep.

"I doubt it." Eggman said on the radio.

"I'm actually afraid of what's next." Cayde said before some dark spheres suddenly appeared out of no where. "Now I wish I was wrong about this."

The defenders had to ready themselves again for the fight against the Taken. The Taken had the upper hand with the defenders not fully prepared for them. The mobians were frightened a bit from all these species being twisted and some malformed from their original forms.

Everyone knew that it was only gonna be hell during this fight, but they still had hope of prevailing. The Taken had started attacking as soon as they were summoned, making them even deadlier with their eagerness. Even though the defenders were prepared for this fight hours before, but their were still overwhelmed from their overall exhaustion. The Taken had pushed them back to the second defensive line within an hour.

"We need more help. None of us will survive if we don't push them back." Sally said to herself. A Taken dreg had found her behind some stone and was about to lunge at her before a giant ball smashed into it. "What the..?" She said.

"I think it's about time for me to get my hands dirty." Eggman said before retracting his wrecking ball.

"Heh. What happened, did they get desperate?" Sally joked.

"Well me, Naugus, The Iron King and Regina are here to help. I think that counts as desperation in my book." Eggman said. Sally was a bit surprised from their biggest enemies actually helping the defenders, but at this point she expected anything.

"You sure we can accept you in this fight?" Sally joked.

"You know what they say, 'the more the merrier'." Eggman said before shooting his wrecking ball at a group of Taken fallen. Cayde started to sing Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus from seeing Eggman's wrecking ball, which made the Guardians laugh while the natives were a bit confused from it.

In the vex sector, Regina was helping the defenders in that sector with the Taken vex. Thankfully, her forte is taking control and glitching out machines. "Take this you corrupted machines!" Regina said to the Taken vex while trying to make them glitch out. However, the corruption of the Taken seems to try to kill her instead of taking her.

"You gonna be okay, Reg?" Sonic asked her.

"Worry not, I can't be killed that easily." Regina said, smiling.

"True, but I don't want to find you dead from being overconfident." Zavala said.

"Isn't that how all villains work, be overconfident to the point they think they're invincible?" Regina said with a sarcastic and ironic expression in her voice. Zavala just chuckled from the irony and continued forward to the demented vex.

"I agree, don't get yourself killed over these things." Sonic said.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Regina said before she continued her sabotage over the vex systems.

In the cabal sector, the Iron King was absolutely destroying the Taken cabal with his giant mace and super bull strength. "COME ON, THIS CAN'T BE ALL YOU HAVE!" The Iron King exclaimed with pride and disappointment in his voice, followed by more bullets from the twisted cabal. "THAT'S MORE LIKE IT! GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU GOT!"

"Geez, he seems to be enjoying this way too much. And how strong is his armor, anyway!?" Knuckles said.

"We were able to give him some tank resistant armor before he got here. We got the supplies teleported here not too long ago." Shaxx said

"Why not give us some armor!?" Knuckles asked, referring to the mobians in this sector.

"It would take too long and we'd be overrun if we stopped in the middle of the battle." Shaxx said.

"COME HERE YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!" The giant bull said before charging toward his enemies.

In the hive sector, Naugus was using his limited spells to try to turn the tides on the malformed aliens here. Although he felt like he needed his staff with the chaos emerald on it, he was actually starting to feel bad for such a weak species. "These things need numbers to be effective. They don't stand a chance against me. I can take down hundreds, even thousands, before this battle ends." Naugus said, full with and confidence in his powers.

"Yes, but even you should have seen the magic they use. Our abilities are turning the tide in our favor. You're just here because we need some extra hands." Ikora said with pride in her voice, but still calm and collective.

"I'm sure the Guardians could take him down with his chaos emerald." Tails said jokingly through his robot. Just then, a wizard's fire volley was heading toward the trio.

"Look out!" Tails yelled before the three of them dodged the fireballs.

"They seem to be more cocky than usual. I think they're suicidal." Ikora said.

"It tried to catch us by surprise. I think we should punish it, severely." Naugus said with a sinister grin.

The battle was very long and tiring. The defenders kept fighting through the seemingly endless hordes of Taken. Unlike the normal aliens, where they would take a break between attacks or take it slow, these monstrosities kept on coming. They had to have killed tens of thousands of them before it was over. They all wondered how big of a percentage Oryx really put in.

The message between the alien leaders, that was hacked by Guardians, said that they would throw in one percent of their forces against the defenders. Some of them had thought that Oryx put in a larger percent, while others had thought about how large of an army he had. One of the few things that could tell them about the decrease in numbers was the disappearance of the Taken spheres that spawned them. Supposedly, the strategy of less spheres was to tire the defenders more to have it last longer. However, they still kept going at it until the Taken were finally defeated.

By the time the fighting was over, it was already 7 A.M. When the Taken were finally gone, everyone stopped moving for a few minutes from the sudden end.

"Is it finally...?" Sally asked but hesitated to finish.

"WE DID IT!" Cayde yelled over the radio, making the current inhabitants of the city just cheer for a good three minutes. They then gathered in the center of the city for a huge congrats from everyone. Everyone was happy that they actually fought off hostile aliens without flinging someone across the universe. Cayde then walked over to Zavala, Ikora, and Lord Shaxx to find out what to do next since the fighting was over.

"I hope that your sector had done well against the enemy." Zavala asked Cayde.

"Oh, indefinitely. I just hope none of you had a bad time during all of it." Cayde said jokingly.

"Not at all. But, you're still needed for vanguard duty." Ikora said, making Cayde sigh.

"Don't be like that. All you do is send hunters off the battle and stand around while everyone just asks you for some new gear." Shaxx said.

"I know! It's boring to do! No offense." Cayde said to the three Guardian leaders, who laughed from the hunter's exclaim of inevitable boredom. The four of them were telling each other about their experience with the mobian defenders and the crazy things the aliens had done out of desperation, like trying to catapult themselves over the defenders. They kept talking until they noticed the Speaker walking up to the group of leaders. The four of them had stopped talking to hear what the Speaker was going to say.

"I believe it's time to summon the Traveler." The Speaker said.

"On it." Cayde said for the vanguards. Ikora went to one location for the summoning ritual and Zavala went to another. Cayde went to the middle of the city where a rune was forming there.

Cayde was of course a little worried that this wouldn't work, but he was willing to go through with it. He went to the rune and waited for Ikora and Zavala to be ready at their runes.

"Hey, Cayde. What going on?" Sally asked in a very cheery tone.

"About to summon the Traveler." Cayde said simply.

"Oh. How are you gonna do that?" She asked.

"Make a rune like this one at three other points, use the Guardians here to amplify my elemental power, and send the energy into the air to bring the Traveler here." Cayde said in a very simple explanation.

"Okay. You're gonna tell me a full explanation afterwards, right?" Sally asked with a demanding tone.

"That was what I was told from speaker, so not from." Cayde said. "Sunbreakers! Basically, you all need to hit me once with your hammers when I saw 'now'." With that the titans got ready to use their supers. The vanguards then activated their own super states to absorb the power from the other Guardians.

"Is everyone in position?" Zavala asked in his arc state.

"I'm ready." Ikora said.

"Ready when you are." Cayde said.

"Alright. 3. 2. 1." Zavala said

"NOW!" Said all three vanguards. At that moment, the Guardians used their abilities on the vanguards. Zavala jumped up and slammed done on his rune, Ikora jumped and shot her void bomb on her rune, and Cayde jumped back to shoot his rune with his golden gun. All three runes had energy going up at the same time for it to be the most effective. When the energy pillars got high enough, some clouds gathered at the middle of the rune formations and swirled around. This created a sort of portal to the pocket universe that the Traveler was in.

Then, from the middle of this portal, emerged the Traveler. The natives were amazed by this huge orb descending toward the planet. They all figured it had to be miles across, possibly in the tens or even in the hundreds. When the Traveler finally emerged completely, the clouds slowly started to separate from each other to their original shapes.

"That's the Traveler? It makes the Death Egg look like an actual egg." Sally said.

"We be afraid of that thing?" Tails asked with a very confused tone.

"I don't think so. It just looks like a giant white orb floating in the sky. Can't be that scary." Sonic said.

"It can terraform planets to make them habitable for us." Eggman said.

"Still, it can't be that big of threat to us." Bunny said.

"Zen let us hope we do not get on ze wrong foot of zese Guardians." Antoine said.

"Well, have we got a big surprise for all of you." Nicole said. She was walking with the Speaker which made everyone, even some Guardians, very curious. "With my permission, me and the Speaker here have found out how to make a city big enough for most of their people without sacrificing any forests that are in it's main area." This was quite a shock everyone, especially the Freedom Fighters.

"Are you sure about this?" Elias asked.

"Yes. Me and Nicole have found out how to send the nanites to a destination without destroying every wildlife organism in it's path." The Speaker said.

"With some upgrade to it's programming and adding some pathing between the grass and such, we can create a city large enough for their people to move in. It would be an almost exact copy of the city in their universe were not for some trees in the way." Nicole said.

"It would promote how environmentally friendly we are and also see the improvements on these nanites. Once the process starts, it could take a few days for it to be complete." The Speaker said.

"What about the Kingdom of Acorn?" Naugus asked.

"Oh, boy." Nicole said in a worried tone.

"We feel as though a world divided into governments would be too diverse for our work to be in full effect. That is why we would like to ask the governments of Mobius to be one huge government." The Speaker said.

"So, basically you're saying-" Shadow started.

"The Guardians feel as though a world with multiple governments is too separate and defunct for them. A whole government on one world is the best way to go. That's something I'm willing to change for them to stay." Sally said. This was a shock to everyone native to Mobius, especially Sonic.

"Are you sure you believe this is the best course of action for your people?" The Speaker asked.

"Yes. Without you guys, we wouldn't be here to celebrate and talk about. Besides, a world ruled by one government, preferably a republic, seems to be the best thing to do to unite everyone." Sally said.

"Why do we need their help to do that?" Sonic asked. Sally was shocked to hear that Sonic would say something like that, even though the Guardians were their saviors in this fight.

"Because we owe them that much for helping us. Without them we wouldn't have survived that battle and everyone else would be dead. Or are you forgetting the brutality of the aliens." Sally said in a serious and angry tone.

"Yeah, I remember. But don't you think it's a little weird how that we had to fight with them even though they could take them on by themselves? As far as I'm concerned, it's their problem, not ours." Sonic said.

"I agree, why should we fight for them? It's their problem, let them take care of it. We shouldn't be dragged into this." Knuckles said. After his comment, the crowd had a split between them if they should help or not. The Destructix, Elias, Sally, Eggman, Naugus, the Iron King, and Regina wanted to help, while everyone else didn't want to help.

"Alright, everyone calm down. I know that we're all tired here, so how about we have Nicole reform the city so you can all get some rest. That's fair, right?" Cayde said. Suddenly, everyone that were able to sleep felt extremely tired. In agreement, everyone waited for their homes to be reconstructed so they can sleep. Before Sally went into a temporary home for her to sleep in, she went up to the Speaker to ask him a question.

"Hey, is it possible for me to be a Guardian?" She asked him in a tired tone.

"We'll see. Just get some rest fro the time being." The Speaker said gently to her. Sally walked into the temporary house and fell asleep almost immediately.

Man, my laziness is atrocious. That and the lack of motivation from you guys. Basically here's how the "ritual" works:

The idea is to use the three elemental damage types on some runes made from the nanites in the city. The runes are supposed to get hit by the elemental attacks and shoot up in the air. The rune itself has a drawing of the element being used with a sphere in the middle to represent the Traveler. The energy then goes beyond the infinity barrier of this universe and head into the pocket universe that the Traveler is in. In order to do that, the vanguards of their respected class must have the Guardians around them to give them more elemental power. In order to have the Guardians to use their more offensive abilities, the vanguards will need to have their groups of Guardians being different classes. For it to work, Cayde was with sunbreaker titans, Ikora was with nightstalker hunters, and Zavala was with stormcaller warlocks.

Also, if this one seemed very unorganized, it was because of some improv that I used for this. With that, I will see you in either Chapter 5 or a new story entirely.


End file.
